Lee County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Table 4.6-1, the county's permitted-use matrix, lists "Tattoo Parlor/Tattoo Studio and/or Body Piercing" as a distinct use category and marks it "P" (permitted as of right) only in the Highway Commercial (HC), Light Commercial & Office (C-1), General Commercial (C-2), Light Industrial (LI), and Heavy Industrial (HI) districts. Every other district on the table, including all ten residential districts, Neighborhood Commercial, Office & Institutional, and the Central Business District, is marked with a dash, meaning the use is prohibited there outright. Because a tattoo or piercing business is a change of use requiring a building permit, opening one still requires a zoning clearance permit under section 3.2.3 before any building permit is issued.

Table 8-1, the off-street parking schedule under Article 8, assigns tattoo parlors and body piercing studios the same standard as most small retail and personal-service uses: one parking space per 300 square feet of gross floor area, calculated under the general design standards of section 8.2 and the amount-of-parking rules of section 8.3. No chapter of the Lee County Code sets separate registration, inspection, or fee requirements specific to tattoo or piercing businesses beyond this zoning classification and parking standard; regulation of the use is a location question, not a licensing one, in this code.