Dorchester County, SC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Article VI of the county's Zoning and Land Development Standards sorts every commercial use into numbered use groups. Use Group 14, Business Personal Services, covers barber and beauty shops, laundromats, tailors and nail salons in subsection (a), then adds at subsection (b): "Tattoo Parlors if approved by SC legislature." Subsection (c) separately lists child care centers. That clause is the only place the zoning code names tattooing as a use.

Section 7.10.4, Conditional Uses for the Industrial (I) district, is the only district table in the ordinance that lists Use Group 14(b); the entry reads "14(b) Business, Personal Services (must comply with 10.4.17)." No other residential, commercial, village or rural district table lists 14(b), so a tattoo studio cannot legally locate anywhere else in unincorporated Dorchester County.

Section 10.4.17, Adult Establishments, is the compliance standard the Industrial-district table cross-references: it bars the use "within one thousand feet (1000') of any Residential Zoning District, Single or Multi-Family Dwelling, Church, or Park, or within one (1) mile of any Public or Private School." Because 14(b) is conditioned on meeting 10.4.17, a proposed tattoo parlor site in the I district must clear those same distance buffers.

Conditional uses in Dorchester County do not require a Board of Zoning Appeals hearing. Per the Article VII introduction to district regulations, conditional uses "may be developed within the applicable district provided the proposed use meets all conditions for that use in Section 10.4," and "the Department of Planning and Zoning may issue zoning permits for a conditional use upon demonstration that these conditions will be met." An applicant works directly with Planning and Zoning staff rather than the appointed board.