Skin piercing registration

Any person carrying on the business of body or skin piercing must be registered with us.

We have approved byelaws that set out standards for the hygienic operation of skin piercing premises. If you are carrying out skin piercing you must comply with these byelaws.

If your business carries out acupuncture this must be registered separately to the other skin piercing activities.

Who can apply for a skin piercing registration

You will need to register if you work in:

tattooing
electrolysis
acupuncture
semi-permanent skin colouring
ear piercing

Both the premises and the person or people carrying out skin piercing need to be registered.

If you own a business involved in skin piercing you will need to register your premises. If you are working in skin piercing you need to be registered as an individual operator.

Costs

Application costs are:

£322 to register your premises
£61 to register an individual operator (individual)
£15 to add or remove an operator from a premises

What you need to provide with your application

You will need to:

submit a completed application (and privacy statement if applying by post)
the required fee (or payment reference if applying by post)

What happens once you have made an application

Once we have received your application, the premises will be inspected within 28 days by the Health Protection Service to ensure that our skin piercing byelaws and health and safety requirements are being complied with.

If there are no issues, a registration certificate will be issued. If there are issues with your application you will be notified as soon as possible to resolve them.

It is in the public interest that we process your application before it can be granted and you cannot assume your registration has been successful if you have not heard from us. If you have not heard from us after 28 days you should contact us.