Gaston County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Unified Development Ordinance Sec. 37 governs a 'body piercing establishment and tattoo parlor,' defined elsewhere in the UDO's Chapter 2 use table as an establishment whose principal business is placing ink under the skin with needles or piercing the body. The section itself is short but binding: the operator must obtain the appropriate local and state health permits, and the business must comply with the state's rules governing tattooing operations in North Carolina, which are administered through the county health department's environmental health program. The UDO's table of uses (Sec.

1, cross-referenced at Sec. 37) does not allow the use by right anywhere; it is listed with an 'SPs' designation, meaning a Special Use Permit issued by the Board of Adjustment is required in the zoning districts where the use is permitted at all, giving the county case-by-case discretion over siting rather than automatic approval. Because the use table places this business in the 'Personal Services' category and specifically excludes it from the broader 'Grooming Services' definition used for barbershops, beauty shops and nail salons, a tattoo parlor cannot piggyback on a grooming-services zoning approval; it must independently clear the Special Use Permit process under Sec.

11 before a health permit application will have a compliant location to attach to. This rule applies only to the unincorporated county; Gastonia, Belmont, Mount Holly, Cherryville, Dallas, Stanley and Bessemer City regulate tattoo establishments under their own separate municipal codes.