Pottstown, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Pottstown's zoning ordinance defines the trade at Section 1400: "Personal Care Business - B" covers body piercing, tattooing, cosmetic tattooing, branding, or scarification, and the definition explicitly excludes any of those procedures that the Pennsylvania Medical Board treats as medical procedures, keeping the classification limited to the storefront trade rather than clinical work. Where the use can locate depends on the district's permitted-use table. Section 337, Highway Business (Contemporary), lists "Personal care - B" among its Permitted Uses alongside automotive repair stations, banks, and restaurants, meaning a tattoo or piercing studio is allowed there by right, without a conditional-use hearing.

Section 334, Gateway East and Gateway West, also lists "Personal care - B" as a permitted use, but flags it with an asterisk tied to a locational footnote: it is permitted only on parcels either fronting on or sharing a boundary with West High Street between 225 and 619 West High Street, the same restriction the ordinance applies to check-cashing stores, fortune-telling establishments, pawnshops, and payday lenders in that district. Outside a parcel meeting that address range, a Gateway-district property cannot host the use as of right.

Both Section 334 and Section 337 direct that conditional uses not on the printed list are evaluated under Sections 400-401's general conditional-use standards, and Borough Council retains authority to approve uses of similar character and impact, but Personal Care Business - B does not itself need that conditional-use route in either district since it is already printed on the permitted-use table.