Delaware: Permanent Makeup & Nano Brows Licensing and Regulation

Verified against official sources, 2026-11-11.

How can you check Nano Brows providers in Delaware?

No online lookup located: As of 2026-11-11, we did not locate a public online lookup. You may ask the provider for the credential's name and issuing agency.

A lookup result reflects only the information shown by the issuing agency. Directory inclusion does not certify a provider's credentials or legal compliance.

Who regulates it

Delaware Division of Public Health (DHSS/DPH) — ESTABLISHMENT-ONLY permitting under the Body Art Establishments rule; NO individual artist license

Does it cover permanent makeup / nano brows?

Coverage: explicitly-covered

EXPLICIT, AND NO LONGER UNRESOLVED. The earlier entry recorded that no DPH document using 'permanent makeup'/'micropigmentation'/'microblading' had been located and left the explicit statement UNRESOLVED. The current rule, read 2026-11-11, names all three. §2.0 definitions: "'Body art' means body piercing, tattooing, branding, scarification, or PERMANENT COSMETICS." — "'Permanent cosmetics' means a tattoo, whether permanent, semipermanent, or temporary, by someone other than a licensed physician, which includes EYEBROWS, eyelids, lips, and other parts of the body for beauty marks, hair imitation, lash enhancement, or areola repigmentation. This term includes any procedures referred to as 'permanent makeup', 'microdermal pigmentation', 'micropigment implantation', 'MICROBLADING', 'microneedling with the use of pigment', 'dermagraphics', 'cosmetic tattooing', or any other similar procedures and for the purpose of this regulation HAS THE SAME MEANING AS \"TATTOO\"." — and "'Tattooing' ... THIS INCLUDES ALL FORMS OF PERMANENT COSMETICS." Operative provisions name it too (§5.3.5: "No operator/technician shall perform tattooing, APPLY PERMANENT COSMETICS, or perform body piercing on a person [under the influence]"). Note the carve-out inside the definition: PMU performed BY A LICENSED PHYSICIAN falls outside it. So PMU premises — nano brows and microblading included, needle or blade — need the body art establishment permit, and this now rests on the rule's own words rather than on an inference from the tattooing definition. ARTIST-SIDE ABSENCE (OFFICIAL): Delaware issues NO individual tattoo/PMU artist license — the Division of Professional Regulation's license-type inventory contains no tattoo/body-art/PMU category (system-level inventory check, the TX-pattern absence evidence), and §4451 places all duties on the establishment permittee.

Artist requirements

License required	No individual artist license at this level
Training	n/a — no individual license exists; establishment permittee responsible for operator hygiene practices (BBP compliance per §4451)
Exam	none
Bloodborne pathogen	establishment-level requirement — rule §5.3.6 binds the permit holder and ALL employees to universal precautions and to treating all blood and specified body fluids as infectious for HIV, HBV and other bloodborne pathogens
Minimum age	ARTIST FLOOR EXISTS after all — rule §5.3.3: "The body art operator/technician must be a minimum of 18 years of age" (the earlier entry said none was identified; it is a rule condition, not a licence condition, since Delaware licenses no artist); CLIENTS under 18: prior written NOTARIZED parental/guardian consent to the specific act (11 Del. C. §1114 — title 11, not 16)
Fee	n/a
Renewal	n/a

Facility requirements

License required	Yes
Inspection regime	DPH permit with plan review + inspections under §4451; permit per establishment, posted; the rule also provides for TEMPORARY establishments (fixed indoor location, ≤14 consecutive days tied to a single event) and MOBILE establishments (MBAE), and the Division retains authority to investigate consumer complaints about ear-piercing systems even though ears-only piercing is outside the statutory definition
Fee	$100 — and it is STATUTORY, not a departmental schedule: 16 Del. C. §122(3)(w)(1) sets a $100 permit fee on application and (2) a $100 annual renewal fee
Renewal	annual

Local variation

County-level variation: No

Single statewide DPH scheme; no county health departments in DE (three-county state, state-administered public health).

Reciprocity

n/a — no individual license to reciprocate; establishments permit locally regardless of operator origin.

Pending / recent changes

Active changes: Yes

Two tracked changes, both now resolved, and neither introduces a practitioner license. (1) HB 324 (153rd General Assembly) was signed on 2026-09-14 as 85 Del. Laws ch. 505 and takes effect 2027-09-14. It is a human-trafficking measure, not a licensing measure: it amends Title 16 to require tattoo parlors to post signs raising awareness of human trafficking, and directs the Department of Health and Social Services to encourage people working at tattoo parlors and body piercing establishments to complete training on recognizing, responding to and reporting trafficking, and to make available a list of nonprofit organizations providing that training free to those workers. An earlier version of this entry described HB 324 as a practitioner licensing bill and warned the state might move to licensing individuals; that was wrong, and Delaware remains establishment-permit-only. (2) The proposed amendment to 16 DE Admin. Code 4451 published at 29 DE Reg. 376 (2025-11-01) was adopted without change by order of the DHSS Cabinet Secretary dated 2026-01-09, published at 29 DE Reg. 705 (2026-02-01) and effective 2026-02-11; no public comments were received. THAT GAP IS NOW CLOSED: the amended text was read in full on 2026-11-11 from the Division's authenticated PDF, and it is the reason this entry's PMU coverage moves from covered-as-tattoo to explicitly-covered — the rule now names permanent cosmetics in the definition of "body art", defines it to include microblading and permanent makeup, and gives it "the same meaning as 'tattoo'". The amendments did NOT introduce a practitioner licence: every duty still runs to the establishment permittee, and Delaware remains establishment-permit-only. HB 324's amended §122(3)(w) is verifiable in the code itself, which currently displays BOTH versions of the paragraph — the one in force ("sanitary operation") and the HB 324 one ("sanitary AND SAFE operation") that adds, at (3) and (4), a duty on the Department to require tattoo parlors to post a visible sign in the window raising awareness of human trafficking (language developed with the Delaware Anti-Trafficking Action Council) and to make available a list of nonprofits giving free training, with a certificate of completion for anyone who takes it. Nothing in either version licenses an individual.

What this means before you book

Delaware permits the STUDIO, not the artist: a body art establishment permit costs $100 a year and comes with plan review and inspections, and the state's rules name permanent makeup, microblading and cosmetic tattooing outright — treating permanent cosmetics as tattooing — so a PMU studio needs the permit. Individual artists carry no state licence, and there is no artist roster to check, so verification means asking the studio to show its Division of Public Health permit and asking the artist about training directly. The artist must be at least 18. A client under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's prior written consent to the specific procedure, and the consent form must be notarized.

Statutes & sources cited

16 Del. C. §122(3)(w) — DPH authority, read in full 2026-11-11. CITE CORRECTIONS, two: the authority paragraph is (w), not (x) — AND the statute does NOT use the phrase "body art establishments", which appears nowhere in 16 Del. C. ch. 1 subch. II (197,058 chars searched). The statute empowers the Department to "[e]stablish standards for the sanitary operation of TATTOO PARLORS AND BODY PIERCING ESTABLISHMENTS" and defines each: a "tattoo parlor" is "a person or business that makes permanent marks on human skin by puncturing the skin and inserting an indelible color or by producing scarring" — which reaches PMU on its face, tool-neutrally — and a "body piercing establishment" perforates tissue and places a foreign object, "except for a person or business that perforates only ears". "Body art establishment" is the RULE's term, and rule §1.1 says it "includes 'tattoo parlor' and 'body piercing establishment', as defined in 16 Del.C. §122(3)(w)"; the earlier entry attributed the rule's word to the statute. THE FEE IS STATUTORY, not a schedule: §122(3)(w)(1) sets a $100 permit fee on application and (2) a $100 annual renewal fee, with the Secretary authorised to issue restricted and provisional permits and to revoke or suspend
16 Del. Admin. Code §4451 (Body Art Establishments) — CITE CORRECTION: the rule number is 4451; '4459' (seen in secondary sources) is WRONG. THE CURRENT TEXT HAS NOW BEEN READ, 2026-11-11, from the Division's own AUTHENTICATED PDF (57,943 chars extracted; history lines carry 18 DE Reg. 645 (02/01/15) and 29 DE Reg. 705 (02/01/26), so the amendment effective 2026-02-11 is in the text read). ACCESS NOTE: every regulations.delaware.gov path — including the site root — returns a 24-char shell to an automated client, and the .shtml page renders no rule text even in a browser; the readable copy is the authenticated PDF linked from that page, which is why it is now cited directly. Rule §5.3.3 sets an OPERATOR AGE FLOOR of 18; §5.3.6 imposes universal precautions on the permit holder and all employees; §5.3.5 bars performing on, or working while, under the influence; records of a minor client must show proof of parental or guardian presence and consent and are kept 3 years. The rule also carries categories the earlier entry did not note: a TEMPORARY body art establishment (a fixed indoor location, no more than 14 consecutive days with a single event) and a MOBILE body art establishment (MBAE), where a customer under 18 may have a parent or guardian accompany them in the unit
11 Del. C. §1114 — TITLE CORRECTION, and it matters: the earlier entry cited this to title 16, but 16 Del. C. ch. 11 is "Long-Term Care Facilities and Services" and has nothing to do with body art. The minors provision is in TITLE 11 (Crimes), ch. 5, subch. V (Offenses Relating to Children and Vulnerable Adults) — confirmed twice on 2026-11-11: rule §1.1 itself directs that any person performing a body art procedure "must be in compliance with 11 Del.C. §1114", and the section was then read in full. "§1114. Body-piercing, tattooing or branding; consent for minors; civil and criminal penalties": (a) prior WRITTEN consent of the minor's parent over the age of 18 or legal guardian, to the SPECIFIC ACT; (c) the consent form must be NOTARIZED; (b) no tattooing of anyone under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance. PENALTY CORRECTION: not an "unclassified misdemeanor" — (d)(1) a CLASS B MISDEMEANOR for a first offense and a CLASS A MISDEMEANOR for a second or subsequent one, with original jurisdiction in the Court of Common Pleas for defendants 18+ and the Family Court for those under 18. (d)(2) affirmative defence where the minor presented photo identification a reasonable person would read as 18+, a photocopy of which must be attached to the customer information card. (e) CIVIL exposure as well: actual damages or $1,000, whichever is GREATER, plus court costs and attorney fees. (f) "minor" means under 18 AND NOT EMANCIPATED; "tattoo" means an indelible mark made by the insertion of a pigment under the skin, or an indelible design made by scars other than branding; and (f)(6) nothing requires anyone to tattoo a minor even with consent