Public Health Law § 460 · Article 4-A. Regulation of Body Piercing and Tattooing
Definitions
Text — Law content up to date as of October 9, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 460. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context requires otherwise:
1. "Commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of health.
2. "Body piercing" shall mean the piercing of any part of the body, except the ear. Such term shall not include tongue-splitting, as defined in section four hundred seventy of this chapter.
3. "Tattoo" shall mean a mark on the body of a person made with indelible ink or pigments injected beneath the outer layer of the skin.
4. "Body piercing specialist" shall mean any person who performs body piercing on the body of any other person.
5. "Tattooist" shall mean any person who applies a tattoo to the body of any other person.
6. "Body piercing studio" shall mean any premises in which the body piercing specialist conducts such practice.
7. "Tattoo studio" shall mean any premises in which the tattooist conducts such practice.
8. "Officer" shall mean the public official with primary responsibility for the enforcement of the state sanitary code within a county, or within a city with a population of one million or more persons. For purposes of this title an officer shall have the powers of a presiding officer under the state administrative procedure act within a county and shall have the powers of a presiding officer under the city administrative procedures act within a city with a population of one million or more persons.
9. "Department" shall mean the department of health.
10. "Approved ink handling procedure" shall mean tattoo ink storage and use procedures that are approved and deemed protective by the department.
11. "Single use needle" shall mean a needle that is sterile and that has never been used on another person.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 9, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PBH460
- Text hash
- sha256 25f0dec611396fff30dbff0aa317ddd398a9656caf8393cfd9c0159906abd757
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.