Wauwatosa, WI Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Wauwatosa does not write its own separate tattoo and body piercing code. 010, adopted by Ord. O-25-5 on February 25, 2025 and sitting in Title 8 Health and Sanitation between the smoking ordinance chapter and the solid waste chapter, incorporates Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 463 (Body Art and Tanning Facilities) and Wisconsin Administrative Code Chapter SPS 221 (Tattooing and Body Piercing) as though those state provisions were printed in full in the city code. The city administers licensing for tattoo and body piercing establishments operating within its limits as an agent of the state, a delegation the code itself traces to Sec.

16 of the Wisconsin Statutes. In practice, an operator opening a tattoo or piercing studio in Wauwatosa applies for a body art establishment license processed through the city rather than through a locally invented permit scheme, and the operating standards, covering sterilization, single-use needle handling, client recordkeeping and facility sanitation, are whatever SPS 221 requires rather than a home-grown Wauwatosa rulebook. Because the chapter is a wholesale adoption rather than a locally drafted ordinance, the code text specifies that the state chapters are adopted "as those chapters may be amended in the future," so a future revision to Chapter 463 or SPS 221 in Madison updates Wauwatosa's requirement automatically without the common council passing a new ordinance.

This chapter replaced an earlier, separately numbered tattoo ordinance; the 2025 rewrite consolidated Wauwatosa's regulation of the industry into a single short section that simply defers to the state's licensing and inspection scheme rather than layering a second set of local rules on top of it.