Garden Grove, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Chapter 6.38 requires every tattooing establishment to have running hot and cold water, adequate toilet facilities, metal or stainless-steel operating tables, and adequate lighting and ventilation, and bars using the premises as a sleeping room or dormitory (§ 6.38.020). Proprietors must disclose the source of all dyes and inks to the Health Officer on request and stop using any source the Health Officer disapproves (§ 6.38.030). All needles, tubes, and reusable equipment must be cleaned with soap and a brush, then sterilized by autoclaving at 15 pounds per square inch for at least 15 minutes, individually wrapped before sterilization, and stored to preserve sterility; dye containers must be autoclaved weekly (§ 6.38.040).

Stencils require a specific precleaning, disinfecting in 70% alcohol for at least 30 minutes, and air drying before reuse (§ 6.38.050, § 6.38.140). Operators may not tattoo skin showing rash, pimples, boils, or infection (§ 6.38.060), must be free of communicable disease themselves (§ 6.38.080), may not smoke while working (§ 6.38.090), must wear a clean light-colored smock (§ 6.38.100), and must wash hands for at least 10 seconds and wear gloves discarded between customers (§ 6.38.110). Dye must come from presterilized bottles, transferred aseptically into single-use paper cups with no refilling, and needles used on one person may never be dipped in dye used on another (§ 6.38.160).

Blades, jelly tubes and gauze, and dye cups must be discarded immediately after each use (§ 6.38.180). The Orange County Health Officer periodically inspects establishments, and the County Board of Supervisors sets annual health service fees payable directly to the Health Officer (§ 6.38.190).