Tennessee: Permanent Makeup & Nano Brows Licensing and Regulation
Verified against official sources, 2026-11-11.
How can you check Nano Brows providers in Tennessee?
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
Tennessee Department of Health via county health departments — artist licensing and studio certification under TCA Title 62, ch. 38, Part 2 and TDH Rule 1200-23-03 (CORRECTIONS logged: Part 2 is titled 'General Provisions', and the tattoo rule is 1200-23-03, not 1200-23-06 which is Body Piercing)
Does it cover permanent makeup / nano brows?
Coverage: explicitly-covered
TCA §62-38-201(13) (official tn.gov PDF): tattoo means "any method of placing designs, letters, figures, symbols, cosmetics or any other marks under the skin ... with ink or color by the aid of needles or instruments" — 'cosmetics' is in the statutory definition. TDH states directly: "Microblading is tattooing," requiring licensure under §62-38-204 or the §62-38-210(b) exemption (TDH microblading page; AG Op. 17-31 (2017)). BROAD MEDICAL EXEMPTION: §62-38-210(b): "This part does not apply to any physician, surgeon or any person under the supervision of a physician or surgeon" — physician-SUPERVISED PMU needs no tattoo license (TDH FAQ requires a notarized supervising-physician letter); med-spa PMU commonly runs through this route.
Artist requirements
| License required | Yes |
|---|---|
| Training | 1-year apprenticeship under a TN artist licensed/compliant 3+ years (out-of-state applicants may substitute 2 years' documented experience); sterilization/universal-precautions training (§62-38-204(e)); IN FORCE since 2026-01-01: ≤1-hr human-trafficking-recognition training, free to the applicant, by a nonprofit approved by the Tennessee human trafficking advisory council, required BEFORE a permit issues ('Ink of Hope Act', SB0171 / Public Chapter 19, §62-38-204(e)(2), read verbatim from the Secretary of State's enacted text). Anyone licensed as of 2025-12-31 must complete it by 2028-12-31 or the department "shall render the license invalid until the person complies" |
| Exam | written exam administered by the county health department (§62-38-204(f)); since 2026-01-01 it "must include questions on recognizing and reporting signs of human trafficking" (Public Chapter 19, sec. 3). An out-of-state artist qualifying on two years' documented experience is licensed "in lieu of satisfying subsection (f)" and so does not sit it (Public Chapter 212) |
| Bloodborne pathogen | yes (universal precautions training) |
| Minimum age | 18 (artist); clients under 18 prohibited (Class A misdemeanor) except 16+ cover-up with guardian consent/presence (§62-38-211) |
| Fee | $140/yr (expires Dec 31; lapse >1 yr = full requalification) |
| Renewal | annual (Dec 31) |
Facility requirements
| License required | Yes |
|---|---|
| Inspection regime | county health department issues the studio certificate after inspection; at least 4 inspections/year; critical violations $100 (possible shutdown), minor $25 with 14 days to cure; records kept 2 years (§62-38-207) |
| Fee | $280/yr |
| Renewal | annual (Dec 31) |
Local variation
County-level variation: No
EXPRESS STATE PREEMPTION (rare in this DB): §62-38-210(a): "This part shall supersede all county and local regulations concerning tattooing to give uniformity ... within this state" — counties administer, they cannot add.
Reciprocity
No blanket reciprocity — Tennessee licenses an out-of-state artist on their own experience rather than recognising another state's licence. §62-38-204(g), as rewritten by SB0497 / Public Chapter 212 and in force since 2026-01-01, requires an out-of-state artist to "show proof of at least two (2) years' experience as a professional tattoo artist in another state, in lieu of satisfying subsection (f), to receive a tattoo artist license in this state". The two-year route is NOT new — the pre-2026 text already required it — but the words "in lieu of satisfying subsection (f)" are, and (f) is the written exam. So from 2026-01-01 that route excuses the Tennessee exam, not merely the apprenticeship. Registration still applies, and the Ink of Hope training under (e)(2) is a separate prerequisite nobody is excused from. Public Chapter 212 also lets an apprenticeship be supervised by an artist licensed in Tennessee for fewer than three years who has been licensed in another state for ten years or more, and requires that supervising artist to sign the apprenticeship-completion application. Business licences and tax records may prove the prior work; artists in business in Tennessee on 1996-10-01 are exempt from (g).
Pending / recent changes
Active changes: None identified
Nothing pending. Both 2025 tattoo acts are ENACTED and IN FORCE, confirmed 2026-11-11 against two independent official sources: the General Assembly's own bill pages give the chapter numbers and effective dates, and the Secretary of State's enacted texts are text-bearing and were read verbatim. SB0497 = Public Chapter 212, effective 2026-01-01, amending §62-38-204(g). SB0171 = Public Chapter 19 ("The Ink of Hope Act"), which carries TWO effective dates — upon becoming law (2025-03-12) for promulgating rules, and 2026-01-01 for all other purposes — amending §62-38-204(e) and (f), adding a renewal-training subsection, and adding a new section giving licensees and their employers civil, criminal and departmental immunity for responding, referring, or failing to respond to signs of human trafficking. The earlier "image-only official PDFs" flag is withdrawn: it was true of the tn.gov law compilation, not of the enacted acts. Industry lobbying for a separate PMU license noted (Tattoo Alliance of Tennessee, secondary) — no bill in the 114th GA. Rule 1200-23-03 unamended since 2024-09.
What this means before you book
Tennessee treats microblading and machine nano brows as tattooing: the artist needs a county-issued tattoo artist license ($140/yr, apprenticeship + exam) and the studio a county certificate inspected at least four times a year — there is no statewide online lookup, so verify by calling the county health department. PMU performed under a physician's supervision is exempt from tattoo licensing entirely, so med-spa credentials work differently — ask which route applies.
Statutes & sources cited
- TCA §§62-38-201 to 62-38-213 (tattooing; official compilation at tn.gov Tattoo-law.pdf, which is the 2014 edition and therefore predates the 2025 acts — Public Chapters 19 and 212 are the operative text for §62-38-204)
- Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1200-23-03 (Tattoo Artist and Tattoo Establishment; last revised 2024-09)
- TCA §62-38-211 (tattooing a minor — Class A misdemeanor; 16+ cover-up exception with guardian consent + presence)