Anderson County, SC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Section 24-149 treats tattoo facilities as a use needing supplemental siting review to keep them compatible with surrounding uses. Before a county permit issues, the operator must already hold a license from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), and that DHEC license must have been issued within the six months immediately before the county permit request; an expired or older license won't support the application. C. Code 1976, § 44-34-110. That 1,000-foot buffer isn't measured as the crow flies: § 24-149(2)(b) requires it to be computed along the shortest route of ordinary pedestrian or vehicular travel on the public thoroughfare, from the nearest point of the church, school or playground's grounds.

On top of the distance buffer, § 24-149(2)(c) folds in the county's general land-use rules, requiring any tattoo facility to also meet whatever setback, bufferyard and off-street parking standards apply to its zoning district under the rest of chapter 24, so a site that clears the 1,000-foot test can still fail on frontage setback or required landscape buffer. The section sits in the same performance-standards article as substance abuse treatment facilities (§ 24-150) and stockyards (§ 24-145), uses that the county treats as needing extra separation from residential and institutional neighbors before they can locate anywhere in the unincorporated county.