Everett, MA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Everett, Middlesex County, Massachusetts regulates tattoo and piercing studios through Section 21A of its Zoning Ordinance, titled Adult Entertainment Land Use. This page covers the City of Everett in Massachusetts, not Everett, Washington. The section defines a Tattoo Studio as a business that marks the skin with an indelible design placed by needles or other instruments with a substance that leaves color under the skin and cannot be removed, repaired or reconstructed without a surgical procedure. A Body Piercing Studio is a business that, as one of its principal uses, implants, perforates, or pierces the skin or other body part to make a hole, mark or scar for a non-medical purpose. A jewelry store, boutique or beauty parlor that uses a mechanized, pre-sterilized ear piercing system on the outer perimeter or lobe of the ear as an accessory use is not a Body Piercing Studio.

Both studio types sit in the same regulated group as adult bookstores, pawn shops, check cashing establishments and gun shops. None of them can be located within 1,000 feet of each other, within 500 feet of the nearest lot line of a Residential District or a place of worship, within 1,000 feet of a non-profit educational use, library, museum, park or playground, or within 1,000 feet of any establishment licensed under section 12 of Chapter 138 of the General Laws. The Board of Appeals can waive the place-of-worship distance only by first determining in writing that the use will not be detrimental to the spiritual activities. No advertisement, display or other promotional material can be visible to the public from any public way.

A studio can be allowed by Special Permit within the Industrial and Industrial Limited Districts, subject to the restrictions of Section 3, and the Special Permit Granting Authority is the city council of the City of Everett. The permit issues only after a public hearing held within sixty-five days after the application is filed. The council must act within ninety days following the hearing, and if it takes no final action in that window the permit is deemed granted. A permit expires one year from issue if substantial use has not commenced, except for good cause. The application must list the legal owner, every person holding a lawful, equity or security interest, the proposed security precautions and the number of employees.