Salinas, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Salinas Municipal Code Sec. 37-10.440 defines a "Tattoo and/or Body Piercing Parlor" as an establishment whose principal business is placing designs, letters, figures, symbols or marks under the skin with needles or similar instruments for permanent coloration, or performing body piercing that creates a permanent hole to hold jewelry. The definition carves out piercing that is merely incidental to a jewelry store or beauty salon, so an earring-piercing counter inside a mall jewelry shop does not trigger the zoning rule.

Table 37-30.90, the Commercial (C) Districts Use Classifications table adopted under Sec. 37-30.200, sets the actual permit requirement. Reading across the four commercial districts, a tattoo or piercing parlor is marked "NP" (Not Permitted) in the Commercial Office/Residential (CO/R), Commercial Office (CO), and Commercial Thoroughfare (CT) districts, and "CUP" (Conditional Use Permit Required) in the Commercial Retail (CR) district only. A prospective operator must locate on a CR-zoned parcel and file a CUP application, which goes to the Planning Commission for a discretionary public hearing rather than being issued over the counter.

A denied or conditioned CUP can be appealed: Sec. 37-60.1280 requires the appeal to be filed with Community Planning and Development, and Sec. 37-60.1290 gives the applicant or any interested party, including the city manager, only ten days from the decision to file. The appellate hearing is de novo and must be scheduled within sixty days.

Operating a parlor outside the CR district, or without an approved CUP, is a code violation like any other unpermitted zoning use and is enforced under the citywide penalty scheme rather than a tattoo-specific fine.