Southaven, MS Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Southaven handles tattoo studios entirely through zoning. The word tattoo appears once in the code as exported, on the 'Tattoo shop' row of Chart 4 in Sec. 13-12, and that row prints an S under M1, M2 and PUD. The O, RO, C1, C3, C4 and PBP columns are empty. The legend above the chart reads 'C is conditional use, S is site plan review (site plans may be formal or administrative per city planner),' so the use is neither a permitted-by-right use nor a conditional use: each shop needs an approved site plan first.

That placement puts tattoo shops in the industrial corridors, not on the retail strips. Sec. 13-12(k) describes the M-1 district as providing for a wide variety of light manufacturing establishments including assembling, processing, storage and distributing activities, and adds that the district should adjoin highways. Sec. 13-12(l) describes M-2 as providing for all types of industrial activities, with potentially hazardous ones permitted only after review by the governing authority. Sec. 13-12(m) defines a PUD as a tract of at least five (5) acres planned and developed as an integrated unit under an approved general site plan, and a PUD shop has to appear in the list of permitted uses approved for that development.

The site plan step is defined by Sec. 13-8(a), which says its intent is to ensure appropriate site development for the uses listed in Charts 3 and 4. Under Sec. 13-8(b) the plan goes to the planning commission and shows the boundary, utilities, ingress and egress, parking spaces, setbacks and the footprint and height of proposed buildings.