Shreveport, LA Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Shreveport's Unified Development Code does not license tattoo shops directly, but it does control where they can operate through a specific zoning use category. Section 5.3 defines 'Body Modification Establishment' as any establishment offering tattooing, body piercing, or non-medical body modification, expressly excluding businesses that offer only ear piercing as an ancillary service from that definition, so a jewelry kiosk that just pierces ears is not swept into the stricter category.

Table 5-1's Use Matrix in Section 5.2 requires a special use permit, reviewed by the Metropolitan Planning Commission, if a body modification establishment wants to locate in the R-MUV residential mixed-use village district, the only residential district where it can appear at all. It is permitted by right in the C-2, C-3, C-4, and C-UC commercial districts, in the D-1-E, D-1-CMU, D-1-RMU, D-1-AC, and D-1-HC downtown sub-districts, and in the I-MU industrial mixed-use district. It is not an allowed use in the C-1 commercial district, the D-1-CBD downtown core, the OR office-research district, or the I-1 and I-2 industrial districts, and it cannot locate in any other residential district.

Beyond the zoning classification, a tattoo shop still needs the same occupational license every business in Shreveport carries under Chapter 86 of the Code of Ordinances, and health department sign-off, but the UDC has no tattoo-specific licensing chapter separate from that general business-license framework.