Youngstown, OH Business Licensing & Operations: Tattoo & Body Modification (2026)

Youngstown does not license tattoo parlors as their own business category; instead, Section 709.04 of the Codified Ordinances folds tattoo parlors into a list of eleven "regulated uses" that must stay 500 feet apart from each other, alongside adult bookstores, adult theaters and moviehouses, adult cabarets, on-premises liquor establishments other than D5J permit holders, off-premises packaged liquor/beer/wine sellers, pool or billiard halls, secondhand stores, payday lenders under Ohio R.C. 1321.35 to 1321.48, internet game cafes and sweepstakes businesses. Section 709.04(b) measures the 500 feet from the nearest property line of an existing regulated use to the nearest property line of the proposed one, and a regulated use just outside the city limits still counts toward that buffer if it would qualify as a regulated use inside Youngstown.

An operator who cannot meet the spacing rule can apply to the City Planning Commission for a waiver under Section 709.04(c); the Commission weighs whether the new use would hurt nearby property, encourage a "skid row" area or conflict with urban renewal plans before recommending approval or denial to Council. A favorable Commission recommendation needs only a simple majority of Council to approve, while overriding a Commission denial takes a three-fourths vote of Council's elected members, and the applicant must first show that more than half of the adults who own property, live or do business within 500 feet of the site have signed a petition supporting the waiver. An applicant may not reapply for a waiver more than once every six months.