Tattoo studio planning trends
Councils received 83 tattoo studio applications in the 12 months to September 2026, after six years of falling yearly counts, to 62 in 2025.
Tattoo studio applications since 2016
Tattoo studio applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredDown from 2019, up since March 2026
The tattoo studio planning index peaked at 121 in the 12 months to October 2019, then fell to 31 in the 12 months to March 2026. It has since climbed to 47, 53% below its 2016 share and 49% below three years earlier.
Closures and removals
In the same 12 months a further 38 applications would close a tattoo studio or turn one to another use, such as a home, café or clinic. They are left out of these figures, which follow tattoo studios that open or change.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 30 tattoo studio applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Tattoo studio applications each quarter
30 in Q3 2026, against 12 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 2.9 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 1.1 a year earlier.
Where tattoo studio applications concentrate
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Leeds
Yorkshire and Humber · 5.8 in every 10,000 36 -
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
South West · 7.3 in every 10,000 28 -
Birmingham
West Midlands · 4.0 in every 10,000 27 -
Norwich
East of England · 31 in every 10,000 27 -
Plymouth
South West · 20 in every 10,000 25 -
Cornwall
South West · 3.0 in every 10,000 24 -
Wigan
North West · 17 in every 10,000 24 -
Amber Valley
East Midlands · 19 in every 10,000 23 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 6.0 in every 10,000 23 -
Durham
North East · 7.7 in every 10,000 22
Latest tattoo studio applications
- 2A Llandaff Road Riverside Cardiff Proposed Change of Use of Ground Floor from A1 (Retail Unit) to Tattoo Parlour (Sui Generis)
- 14 Tower Street King's Lynn Norfolk Retrospective - Change from class E to sui generis as a tattoo and piercing studio. No external or structural work to be done. Just removing unit, adding new flooring, painting, new lighting and adding window and shop signage.
- Nudawn Enterprise Ltd, 206 Well Street, Hackney, London Change of use from part Cafe/event space to Tattoo studio and installation of painted timber fascia signboard and painted window signage.
- Lloyds Tsb 39 - 41 Cowbridge Road Pontyclun Rhondda Cynon Taf Proposed change of use of the existing bank (Use Class A2) to accommodate a ceramic workshop (Use Class B1c), barbers (Use Class A1), tattoo parlour (Sui Generis) and offices (Use Class B1a), with shared ancillary kitchen and WC facilities, together with alterations to the shopfront.
- 2 Dale Road Rawmarsh Change of use from office / letting agency to tattoo studio (Use Class E(c)(iii))
- 25 St Marks Road Bristol Application for a Lawful Development Certificate for a Proposed use or Development - Use of one existing ground-floor room within the applicants dwelling as a small-scale, appointment-only home-based tattoo studio, operated solely by the occupier. The remainder of the property will continue to be used as the applicants private dwelling. No building operations or external alterations are proposed, and the residential appearance of the property will remain unchanged.
Questions
How many tattoo studio planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 2,057 since January 2016, 83 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share peaked in the 12 months to October 2019.
Which councils receive the most tattoo studio applications?
Leeds, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Birmingham have received the most since 2016.
Are tattoo studio applications rising or falling?
Rising again after a long fall. The tattoo studio planning index dropped from 121 in the 12 months to October 2019 to 31 in the 12 months to March 2026, and stood at 47 in the 12 months to September 2026.
Does every new tattoo studio need planning permission?
Usually, in England. Many councils still class a tattoo studio as sui generis, so a change of use needs planning permission; some read it as Class E (the use class covering shops, cafes, offices, gyms and similar town-centre uses) since September 2020. It depends on the council and the premises.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
How councils class a tattoo studio varies: many still treat it as sui generis, which needs planning permission for a change of use, while some read it as Class E since September 2020.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names tattoo studios or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- Removals are taken out: every matching application is classified, and those that would remove or demolish tattoo studios, or change them to another use, are not counted. The figures follow applications that add, extend or alter them.
- How matches are checked: we read a random sample of the tattoo studio applications counted here against what the topic's name means, and compare the counts with published figures where they exist.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The tattoo studio planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 11 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- SI 2020/757 created Class E in England from 1 September 2020. legislation.gov.uk
- Councils differ on whether a tattoo studio is sui generis or Class E; many still class it as sui generis. planninggeek.co.uk