Gulfport, MS Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Appendix A's Chart of Permitted Uses places the tattoo parlor use under the ordinance's "services" category and ties its location to two different approval tracks. In the B-2 general business and B-4 highway business districts, a tattoo parlor needs Planning Commission approval of its location and site plan before it can open, the same review track used for uses the ordinance considers appropriate only with added scrutiny of traffic, parking and compatibility with the surrounding area. In the I-2 heavy industry district, by contrast, a tattoo parlor is allowed by right with no such review.

Wherever the use locates, it carries a fixed buffer: no part of the establishment or its parking lot, shared or otherwise, can sit closer than 1,000 feet to a church, school, kindergarten, funeral home, day care center, museum, learning center, other educational facility, or library. The ordinance measures that distance the short way, from the closest point of the tattoo parlor's building or parking area to the closest point of the protected use's building or parking area, whichever pairing produces the shorter distance. Before the city will approve the location, the applicant has to submit written certification that the 1,000-foot standard is met, putting the burden of proof on the business rather than the city.

The ordinance defines a tattoo parlor broadly, as any premises where indelible marks are made on or through the skin by puncturing it with a needle or similar instrument to insert ink or pigment, a definition broad enough to reach both tattoo studios and permanent-makeup or scarification businesses operating on the same premises.