Concord, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

M for the operating conditions. K sets the tattoo-parlor rule: a new tattoo parlor must be at least three hundred (300) feet from any existing tattoo parlor, with the distance measured radially from the building wall of the proposed establishment to the building wall of the existing one at their closest points. M imposes an identical 300-foot separation on body piercing establishments from any existing body piercing establishment, using the same building-wall-to-building-wall radial measurement, and additionally requires that all signage for a body piercing business comply with the Article 12 sign regulations.

The CDO's definitions article defines "tattoo parlor" broadly as any location where tattooing is engaged in or where the business of tattooing is conducted, or any part of that business is conducted. Because the separation runs between same-use establishments rather than from schools, churches or residential zones, an operator's chief pre-application task is confirming that no other tattoo parlor, or no other body piercing shop, already sits within 300 feet of the proposed building. City planning staff verify this distance against the parcel's building footprint before issuing zoning approval, since the Use Table classification is Permitted with Standards rather than permitted outright.