Fort Lauderdale, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

The Services Supergroup line item in Sec. 15-57 lists "TATTOO PARLOR (see also Artist and Body Piercing Artist)" among the businesses taxed at $157.50, then cross-references two individually billed classifications elsewhere in the same fee schedule. The Artist classification, at $105.00, is billed to "each artist" and expressly "includes retouching, sketching, and cartooning," the category the tattoo trade is taxed under. The Body Piercing Artist classification mirrors it: $105.00, with each artist "taxed individually." Because Sec. 15-33 requires a separate business tax receipt for each classification carried on at one address, a combined tattoo-and-piercing studio pays the $157.50 parlor tax for the location plus $105.00 for every tattoo artist and every piercer working there, not one blended fee for the shop.

Sec. 15-32 requires a sworn statement when a receipt's amount depends on the number of individuals working from the site, which the business tax division uses to verify the per-artist counts for these categories. Sec. 15-34 treats advertising a tattoo or piercing service, even without proof of an actual sale, as evidence that the business is liable for the tax, and Sec. 15-40 requires the Development Services Department to confirm the shop's location is zoning-compliant before the Business Tax Division issues any receipt, with continued compliance a condition of keeping it.