Skin piercing and tattoo registration

You’ll need to register with us to carry out the following skin piercing or tattoo activities:

• tattooing
• cosmetic piercing
• ear piercing
• acupuncture
• electrolysis
• semi-permanent make up
• microblading

Unlike annual licences that need to be renewed each year, these registrations only need to be granted once. 

If the person carrying out these activities changes, however, then they’ll also need to be registered.

If you’re planning to carry out any skin piercing activities in other local authority areas or on a mobile basis, then you may need to be registered in each local authority area that you’ll operate in.

Register with us

Complete the appropriate form below and send it back to us using the details at the bottom of this page:

• Application for practice of tattooing skin colouring piercing electrolysis (.doc, 181kb)
• Application for business of tattooing skin colouring piercing electrolysis (.doc, 179kb)

You can also contact us for help and advice.

Standards and working practices

Anyone carrying out tattooing or cosmetic piercing must work to the standards and working practises detailed in the tattooing and body piercing guidance toolkit published by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).

The toolkit can be downloaded from the CIEH website.

You should read this document and keep a copy of it at your premises at all times. These standards should be implemented without delay and progress will be checked on our next routine inspection.

Voluntary hygiene accreditation scheme

Nottinghamshire's Hygiene Accreditation Scheme (HAS) is a voluntary scheme set up to improve and maintain hygiene and safety standards at premises offering tattooing, semi-permanent make up and cosmetic body piercing. 

If you would like to take part you should begin by completing the hygiene audit and action plan (PDF, 163kb). This should be reviewed annually.

You can then submit a HAS application form (PDF File, 224kb) to us to request your initial inspection.

What happens next

Environmental health officers from the council will visit you to assess your hygiene and safety standards against the rating schedule and award your premises a rating. This will be reviewed annually. 

The fee for an inspection and rating is £120.

To achieve a Level 5 rating (‘Excellent’) you must produce written procedures proportionate to the size of your business. You can find tips on how to do this in our written procedures guidance document (PDF, 69kb).

Once rated you will receive a certificate and a window sticker to display your rating, giving customers confidence in the hygiene and safety levels at your premises.

If you are unhappy with your rating

If you are unhappy with your initial score, you can take steps to rectify any shortcomings before applying for a re-rating using the apply for a re-rating form (PDF, 123kb).