Taylor, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Taylor's zoning ordinance places tattoo parlors in Article 20's list of "regulated uses" alongside adult uses, firearms dealers, pawn shops, tobacco retailers, precious metal dealers, and resale shops. Sec. 20.02(a)(4) prohibits establishing a tattoo parlor within a 1,000-foot radius of another regulated use, whether the tattoo operation is the primary, secondary, or accessory use of the site. Sec. 20.02(b) layers on a second 1,000-foot buffer from any church or religious institution, any public or private elementary, secondary, vocational, or special education school, junior college or university, any single- or multiple-family residential district or Midtown district, and any lot in residential use.

Sec. 20.02(c) specifies that the separation is measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the nearest boundary of the tattoo parlor's site to the nearest lot line of the protected use or district; access easements used only to reach a major street are excluded from that measurement. A tattoo parlor must obtain special land use and site plan approval from the planning commission, following the same procedures set out for all Article 20 regulated uses, and the ordinance's stated intent under Sec.

20.01 is to prevent any concentration of these businesses in one area. Only a tattoo parlor lawfully operating before the regulated-use ordinance took effect is grandfathered as a nonconforming use if it no longer meets the spacing rule; new locations must comply fully, and the required separation may be waived only on specific findings under Sec. 20.04.