What the health inspector asks for: tattoo consent records in Texas, Florida, and Indiana

In 45 states the rule lists what a tattoo client's record has to capture, and in 43 it sets a period for keeping it. Here is what 3 of them say, read from the regulation text itself and translated into counter language. The link to the actual text is at the top of each section, so you can bring the citation to your inspector rather than take our word for it.

This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Your local health department has the final word. Ask them, and bring your records.

Texas

The rule is 25 TAC §229.406, under Health & Safety Code chapter 146.

• The client has to be 18 or older and show a valid government-issued photo ID with their date of birth on it.
• The artist verifies the ID and writes down the client's age, date of birth, and the type of ID they showed. That last part is the one shops miss on paper.
• The record carries the client's name, address, and phone, and the date.
• For a tattoo, the record names the specific colors used and, when the manufacturer prints one, the catalogue or identification number of each color. The rule says nothing about lot numbers; recording them answers it.
• The location on the body.
• Keep it at least 2 years after the last entry, at the studio, and produce it to an inspector at all reasonable times.

Florida

The rule is Fla. Admin. Code 64E-28.007, under Florida Statutes chapter 381.

• A record for every client, including parental consent where the client is a minor. Clients aged 16 and 17 need a notarized parental consent on the state's form (DH 4146).
• Sterilization records sit alongside the client records.
• Keep them 2 years, with the current licensing period's records on site, available to the county health department at inspection.

Indiana

The rule is 410 IAC 1-5-28.

• The record carries the client's name, address, and age; the date; the design of the tattoo and where it went on the body; the name of the artist who did the work; and any jewelry or decoration used, for piercing.
• Keep it 2 years.

California, briefly

California's Safe Body Art Act (Health & Safety Code §119303) is more specific than Texas, Florida or Indiana about what the consent form and the health questionnaire have to say: a description of the procedure, a statement that body art is permanent, notice that pigments are not FDA-approved, aftercare with signs of infection, and a set of health questions about pregnancy, diabetes, allergies, bleeding disorders, and medications. How long to keep the client record is set county by county there, so ask yours.

What all 3 have in common

3 things, and they are the same 3 things that get a shop in trouble on paper:

1. The record has to exist for every client, every time. A regular who signed last year signs again this visit.
2. It has to carry fields a generic waiver app does not have: the type of ID checked, the artist's name, the colors used and their catalogue numbers.
3. It has to still exist 2 years later. A binder that got wet, an iPad that got dropped, an app that lost everything in an update: the inspector does not care why.

How to keep a record that survives

Whatever tool you use, paper or digital, make sure of 3 things:

• Two copies from the moment of signing. If the record lives in one place, that place is your single point of failure. Our form emails the signed waiver to the shop and files a copy on our side the second the client finishes, so the shop's inbox is a backup it already owns.
• Nothing that depends on a device. A record written to a tablet is a record that lives on a tablet. The client's own phone is for filling in the form, not for keeping it; the record should be written somewhere else before they put the phone away.
• Search that works at the counter. When the inspector asks for a client's record, you want it in seconds, by name, artist, or date. If finding a record means scrolling a camera roll or flipping a binder, the record may as well not exist.

Our form captures the fields above, and the colors and lot numbers go on the same record after the session once you turn that on in Settings.