Revere, MA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Revere Municipal Code § 17.16.048 regulates body art establishments as a zoning use confined to the TED district. The city council's preamble explains why: locating body art businesses in one identifiable district, away from residential property, helps the city enforce health and safety codes and protects the public from the blood-borne pathogen risks inherent in tattooing and piercing. A body art establishment needs a special permit from the city council, and it must comply with the same 500-foot separation Revere applies to a handful of other sensitive uses: it cannot sit within 500 feet of the nearest lot line of another body art establishment, a public or private school, a playground, a park, a conservation area, a house of worship, or any residential use or residential area. Every special permit also requires the business to close between 11:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. each day and bars any illuminated sign with moving, flashing or animated lights or movable parts.

Body piercing itself carries a second, separate layer of regulation under Chapter 9.04. A body piercer needs a board of health permit, which costs a forty-dollar initial fee plus a forty-dollar annual renewal, and the piercer must show a physician's license, a signed compliance agreement and an infection-control policy before the board will issue it. Piercers may not pierce minors without a parent or guardian's signed consent, may not pierce genitalia, and may only pierce the tongue, lips and facial areas orally. Every permit expires December 31 and must be conspicuously posted at the establishment.