Skin piercing and tattooing

Registration

You must register your business premises and all practitioners carrying out skin piercing and tattooing from your premises.

Skin piercing and tattooing activities include:

  • acupuncture
  • cosmetic piercing
  • ear piercing
  • electrolysis
  • tattooing
  • semi-permanent skin colouring (for example, micro-pigmentation and semi-permanent make-up).

You must display a copy of the registration certificate at your premises.

If you do not register, we may take legal action against you under the Local Government (miscellaneous provisions) Act 1982 as amended by the Local Government Act 2003 byelaws.

New registration fee

There is a one-off fee to register your business premises, your practices and your practitioners.

The registration fee is £220.30 and is non-refundable.

Amendment fee

If your business premises is already registered with Medway Council, you can amend your existing registration certificate.

You can:

  • register new practices, or remove ones you no longer offer
  • register new practitioners, or remove ones that have left, or change which skin piercing activities your practitioners are registered for by making an amendment to your current registration.

The amendment fee is £104.30 and is non-refundable.

If you have moved to new premises, you must apply for a new registration. You cannot amend your existing certificate to change your business address to a new premises.

Apply for a registration

You can apply and pay for a registration or amendment online.

You’ll need to give us details about:

  • your business
  • your business premises
  • the practitioners you need to register
  • any convictions related to skin piercing or tattooing.

To pay online, you'll need: 

  • a credit or debit card
  • the cardholders details.

If you have any questions before applying, please contact the Food and Safety team by emailing foodandsafety@medway.gov.uk.

Apply for a skin piercing and tattooing registration

After you apply

We aim to process applications for skin piercing and tattooing registrations within 10 working days.

We’ll keep you updated by email.