Kirkwood, MO Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Kirkwood regulates tattoo studios through a use-specific zoning standard rather than a separate body-art licensing chapter. Section 25-36(bb)(1) sets a spacing rule: a tattoo studio must be located a minimum of 1,000 feet from any other tattoo studio, a separation distance that limits how many such businesses can cluster in the same commercial corridor even where the underlying zoning district otherwise permits the use. Section 25-36(bb)(2) adds a physical design limit rather than a distance limit: any tenant space containing a tattoo studio may have a maximum first-floor street frontage of eight feet, a narrow storefront cap clearly aimed at keeping tattoo studios from occupying prominent, wide-frontage retail space along a commercial street.

Both restrictions attach to the use itself, so they apply wherever a tattoo studio is a permitted or special use under Kirkwood's zoning districts, and a studio proposing to locate within 1,000 feet of an existing one, or in a tenant space with more than eight feet of first-floor frontage, cannot obtain zoning approval for the location regardless of the underlying district's general use table. As with other use-specific standards in Article III of Chapter 25, these requirements sit alongside, and do not replace, the City's ordinary business license and occupancy permit process for any commercial tenant.