St. Tammany Parish, LA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

The parish's Unified Development Code lets a home office or home occupation operate as an accessory use in residential districts under Sec. 600-6.2(4), subject to a development plan review, a 15-percent/600-square-foot size cap, and a ban on outside employees. Subsection (l) then removes an entire category of businesses from eligibility regardless of those limits, and tattoo parlors are named specifically: massage parlors, tattoo parlors, fortunetellers, faith healers and other activities of like character are listed as prohibited uses in subsection (l)(ii).

Because the prohibition sits in the residential accessory-use standards, it reaches only home-based operations in unincorporated St. Tammany Parish, meaning a tattoo studio run out of a house, garage or converted outbuilding on a residential lot. The same subsection groups engine repair businesses, including auto and auto body work, on the identical prohibited list, underscoring that the parish treats any use likely to draw walk-in clientele or specialized equipment into a residential neighborhood the same way it treats a tattoo studio. A tattoo studio operating from a properly zoned commercial storefront is a different question from the home-occupation ban addressed here, and any additional state health-department licensing that applies to body-art establishments is separate from the parish's zoning code.