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

Santee's commercial use table, Table 13.12.030A, assigns every listed use a letter in each of the three commercial and office districts: "P" for a use permitted by right, "C" for a use requiring a conditional use permit, "MC" for a use requiring only a minor conditional use permit, and a dash where the use "shall not be permitted in that district," per Section 13.12.030. Line 69 of that table reads "Tattoo parlor and/or body piercing salon" with a dash in the OP column, a dash in the NC column, and a "P" in the GC column: a tattoo or piercing business is a permitted, by-right use only in the General Commercial district, and it is not allowed at all, not even with a conditional use permit, in the Office/Professional or Neighborhood Commercial districts.

That placement puts tattoo parlors alongside other general commercial uses the table treats as more intensive activity along major transportation routes, rather than day-to-day neighborhood convenience uses. The city's definitions chapter, Section 13.04.140, defines a "tattoo parlor" as "any place of business that engages in tattooing persons by any method of placing designs, letters, scrolls, figures, symbols or any other marks upon or under the skin with ink or colors, by the aid of needles or instruments," and a separate definition covers body piercing as creating an opening in the body for jewelry, excluding ear piercing. A business meeting either definition anywhere outside the GC zone is operating in a district where the use is not permitted at all.