Tattoo studio numbers - past ten years
Case reference FOI2026/00888
Received 10 April 2026
Published 8 May 2026
Request
I am writing to seek data in order to provide context to some upcoming work:
Q1) Please advise, based on your business rates database, how many tattoo-specific premises or tattoo studios were known to you for each financial year for the past 10 years.
Q2a) Please can you advise, based on your Environmental Health records, how many premises were registered with you in order to provide tattooing services or were tattoo studios, during each financial year for the past 10 years under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (LGMPA 1982). Please note that tattooing is considered alongside acupuncture, electrolysis, semi-permanent skin colouring, and piercing to be referred to more broadly as a ‘special treatment’, which is regulated by the above Act.
Q2b) Please can you advise, based on your Environmental Health records regarding the above premises, how many individual practitioners were registered with you in order to provide tattooing services or were working within tattoo studios, during each financial year for the past 10 years under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (LGMPA 1982)?
Response
I am writing to seek data in order to provide context to some upcoming work:
Q1) Please advise, based on your business rates database, how many tattoo-specific premises or tattoo studios were known to you for each financial year for the past 10 years.
Answer: This information is not held. The service area have advised they aren’t required to record the specific nature of the business to that extent. Tattoo Parlours do not have a specific code of their own and therefore they would be unable to identify all of them in the business system.
Q2a) Please can you advise, based on your Environmental Health records, how many premises were registered with you in order to provide tattooing services or were tattoo studios, during each financial year for the past 10 years under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (LGMPA 1982).
Please note that tattooing is considered alongside acupuncture, electrolysis, semi-permanent skin colouring, and piercing to be referred to more broadly as a ‘special treatment’, which is regulated by the above Act.
Q2b) Please can you advise, based on your Environmental Health records regarding the above premises, how many individual practitioners were registered with you in order to provide tattooing services or were working within tattoo studios, during each financial year for the past 10 years under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 (LGMPA 1982)?
Answer: Please see the answers for questions 2a & 2b. Please note the bold number is the individual.
2016 –15 & 24
2017 - 8 &14
2018 - 13 & 29
2019 - 10 & 26
2020 – 13 & 15
2021 – 9 & 7
2022 – 26 & 36
2023 – 12 & 24
2024 – 15 & 27
2025 – 18 & 29
2026 – 5 & 9
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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