Home / Georgia / Microblading

How to Start a Microblading Business in Georgia: Licenses, Costs & Requirements

Georgia regulates microblading as body art, and the regulator is a health department, not the cosmetology board. The Department of Public Health writes the rules, your county board of health permits the studio and examines the artists, and the cosmetology license on your wall answers none of it. This guide walks through the two credentials, the studio standards, and the business filings behind them.

Researched from Georgia state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

Who licenses microblading in Georgia

Microblading in Georgia is body art, not cosmetology. It is regulated by the Georgia Department of Public Health under Chapter 511-3-8 of its rules, the Body Art chapter that took effect on October 6, 2023, under the authority of O.C.G.A. Chapter 31-40. The chapter defines body artists as practitioners who perform tattooing, piercing, or microblading, and it splits the credential in two: the artist holds a certification from the Department, and the studio holds a permit issued locally by the Health Authority, which in practice is your county board of health's environmental health office. The State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers has no role in it.

That split decides where your opening effort goes. There is no state application portal for a microblading studio and no cosmetology license that substitutes for the body art credentials. Your county health department is your first phone call: it takes the studio permit application, gives the artist exam, and inspects the space. The Department of Public Health sets the standards statewide, publishes the rules, and can answer classification questions through its Body Art Program.

Georgia microblading requirements at a glance

The DPH Body Artist Certification for your artists

No person may practice body art in Georgia without a Body Artist Certification from the Department of Public Health, in the procedure area they practice. Certification is requested in one or more of three areas: tattooing, piercing, and microblading. A microblading artist certifies in microblading. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and apply through the local county health department, which administers the body artist exam for each procedure. The Department's guidance sets the passing score at 70 or better, and the rules cap the exam fee the Health Authority may charge at $50. The Department is not currently charging a fee for the artist certification itself.

Notice what is not in the framework: no hour based state course, no cosmetology prerequisite, and no state apprenticeship. Georgia certifies body artists by examination and by the standards of the studio they work in, which pushes real training into the private market and real discipline into the permit system. Choose training the way an inspector and a client would judge it, because your certification exam and your studio inspection are the two state touchpoints your work will actually meet.

Artists who are already certified elsewhere are not automatically certified in Georgia, but the rules make room for visiting work: guest and temporary body artist permits are issued by the local county health department where the artist will practice, with the temporary permit running seven days in a permitted temporary studio under supervision. If your studio model involves guest artists, build the county application lead time, ten days in advance for a guest permit application, into your booking calendar.

The Body Art Studio permit for your space

The studio needs a Body Art Studio permit before it opens, issued by the Health Authority, your county board of health, under Rule 511-3-8-.05. The permit designates the specialties that may be practiced in the studio, tattooing, piercing, or microblading, so a microblading studio applies for the microblading specialty, and adding tattooing later is a permit change, not a menu update. A permit is issued to a single permit holder at a single location and does not transfer: it expires when the studio ceases to operate, relocates, or changes ownership, so a buyer of an existing studio and a studio that moves both start fresh with the county.

The permit must be displayed near the front entrance of the studio, where clients can read it. Permit fees and inspection schedules are set at the county level under the state framework, so the Department's rules give you the structure and your county health department gives you the numbers. Ask for the county's current body art fee schedule and pre opening inspection requirements before you sign a lease, because the studio standards in the next section can disqualify a space that a landlord swears was fine for the last tenant.

Do not confuse the two credentials when you hire. A certified artist may work only in a permitted studio, and a permitted studio may host only certified artists. The county enforces both halves, and the artist working under the table at home is violating the same chapter as the unpermitted studio downtown.

Studio rules that shape the buildout

Chapter 511-3-8 reads like a buildout checklist: minimum design standards for the studio, client files and consent records, employee files, rules for dyes and pigments, procedure standards, aftercare, and disinfection of the workplace. Design the space from the rule text rather than from a landlord's brochure: handwashing and cleaning arrangements, single use supplies, sharps handling, and the separation of procedure areas from retail and waiting space all live in the chapter, and the county inspector will walk the space against it.

One rule deserves a headline of its own, because it is the Georgia provision written for this exact trade. Tattooing within one inch of the eye socket is prohibited, with an express exception for microblading of the eyebrow. Permanent eyeliner and other cosmetic tattooing near the eye sit on the prohibited side of that line. A studio whose menu drifts from brows into eyeliner is not expanding a service; it is breaking the rule that makes its core service legal. Keep the menu inside the exception, and let the rule text, Chapter 511-3-8, be the document your training and consent forms are built from.

Forming your LLC with the Georgia Secretary of State

Most Georgia beauty businesses organize as a limited liability company, and Georgia makes the filing simple. To form the LLC, file Articles of Organization with the Corporations Division of the Secretary of State, online through the eCorp system. Under the Corporations Division fee schedule effective September 6, 2025, the filing fee is $100 plus a $10 service charge, $110 in total, and the same $110 applies whether you file online or on paper. Older guides still quote $100 or $105; the September 2025 schedule replaced both numbers. Your Articles name the LLC, give its address, and name a registered agent with a Georgia street address who accepts legal papers on the business's behalf.

The filing owners miss is the annual registration. Every Georgia LLC files one with the Secretary of State each year between January 1 and April 1, starting the year after formation. The statutory fee is $50 plus the $10 service charge, $60 in total, and filing after April 1 adds a $25 late penalty. Let it lapse and the Secretary of State can administratively dissolve the LLC, which strips away the liability protection the entity exists to provide. Put the January to April window on your calendar the day you form, not the first spring it surprises you.

An LLC is not the only route. A sole proprietor files nothing with the Corporations Division, but also gets no separation between business and personal debts and claims. A corporation files Articles of Incorporation at the same $110 total and owes the same $60 annual registration. Whatever you choose, the entity does not change the licensing in this guide. The board licenses, the county trade name filing, and the tax accounts below are the same for an LLC, a corporation, and a sole proprietor.

Registering your trade name with the Clerk of Superior Court

Georgia handles business names at the county courthouse, not at the state level. If you do business under a name that does not disclose who owns the business, a storefront name, a brand, or an LLC trading under a shorter name, O.C.G.A. Section 10-1-490 requires you to register that trade name with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the business is chiefly carried on. File before you start doing business under the name. The registration statement is verified by affidavit and lists the names and addresses of the owners and the nature of the business being carried on.

Two steps catch people out. First, the filing is not complete until you publish notice of it in the newspaper in which the sheriff's advertisements are printed, once a week for two weeks. Second, there is no statewide fee: the charge is the clerk's fee prescribed by O.C.G.A. Section 15-6-77, so it is set county by county. Wayne County, as one published example, charges $163 to register a trade name. Ask your own clerk for the current schedule before you go in. You file once; a new and amended statement is required only when ownership changes.

A trade name registration does not create your entity and does not give you trademark rights in the name. It is a public disclosure filing, and your bank will usually ask for the filed statement when you open the business account, so complete it before you sign a lease or print signage under the name.

Getting your federal Employer Identification Number

Your Employer Identification Number, or EIN, is the federal tax ID for the business, issued by the IRS. Apply directly on the IRS website and it is free; any site charging you for an EIN is selling you a form you can file yourself in minutes. You need the number before your first hire, and in practice sooner: most banks require one to open a business account for an LLC, and the Department of Revenue and the Department of Labor both want it when you register your tax accounts. Apply right after your entity filing so it never becomes the bottleneck.

Georgia sales tax: services are not taxed, retail products are

Georgia taxes the retail sale of tangible personal property, and the Department of Revenue states the rule plainly: the tax falls on retail sales of goods and a short list of specific services, and most services are exempt. Microblading and permanent makeup services are services, and they are not on that taxable list, so you do not charge sales tax on procedure fees. The tax lives at your retail shelf: shampoo, conditioner, styling products, and anything else a client pays for and takes home are taxable retail sales.

Register with the Department of Revenue before your first retail sale. Registration runs through the Georgia Tax Center, the Department's online portal, which issues your sales and use tax number and your Certificate of Registration as a dealer. The state rate is 4 percent, and county and city taxes stack on top of it, so the rate you charge is the combined rate for your location from the Department's published rate chart. Inside Atlanta, in Fulton County, that combined rate is 8.9 percent. Charging another county's rate is a common and expensive mistake, because the combined rate follows the place of the sale.

One more rule matters to service businesses. On the products you use up while providing services, your pigments, blades, and single use supplies consumed during procedures, you are the end user, and sales or use tax is due on those purchases. Buy your retail inventory under your dealer registration and collect the tax when you sell it; pay the tax on what the business consumes itself. Keep services and products on separate lines in your point of sale, file your returns on the schedule the Department assigns, and remit what you collected. That money was never yours.

Hiring staff: unemployment tax, new hires, wages and classification

Hiring your first employee opens accounts with two agencies. With the Georgia Department of Labor, a business becomes liable for unemployment insurance once it pays $1,500 in wages in a calendar quarter or employs at least one person in each of 20 different weeks in a year, and it establishes its UI tax account with the Employer Status Report, Form DOL-1N. New employers are assigned a beginning rate of 2.70 percent, charged only on the first $9,500 of each employee's wages per year, until the Department computes an experience based rate from your own history. Quarterly tax and wage reports, Form DOL-4N, are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Separately, register for Georgia income tax withholding through the Georgia Tax Center and have each employee complete Form G-4.

Report every new hire, rehire, and return to work to the Georgia New Hire Reporting Program within 10 days, as O.C.G.A. Section 19-11-9.2 requires. On wages, do not plan around Georgia's $5.15 state minimum wage: the state law covers only employers of six or more employees and excludes employment subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act when the federal rate is higher, so nearly every Georgia beauty business must pay at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Workers' compensation insurance becomes mandatory once you regularly employ three or more people. Part-time staff count toward the three, and so do LLC members and corporate officers.

Then there is classification. Georgia has no salon specific statute that blesses booth rental, so a chair renter is an independent contractor only if the relationship actually works like one: the renter sets their own prices and hours, books and collects payment from their own clients, holds their own license and insurance, and pays you rent for the space rather than working to a schedule and price list you control. The more the arrangement looks like employment, the more likely the Department of Labor and the IRS are to call it employment, with back payroll taxes to match. Get the rental agreement in writing before the first client sits down.

The local layer: occupational tax certificates, zoning and Atlanta

Georgia issues no general state business license. The license that lets you operate day to day is local: an occupational tax certificate, called a business license or a business tax certificate in many jurisdictions, issued by your city when the business sits inside city limits or by your county when it does not. Fees and formulas are set locally, commonly from some mix of business type, employee count, and gross receipts, and renewal dates are local too. Zoning has to allow a personal services business at your address before you sign the lease, and buildout work can need building, plumbing, and electrical permits plus a certificate of occupancy. Do the local checks in that order: zoning for the address, the certificate, then buildout permits.

Metro Atlanta stacks the layers highest. A business inside Atlanta needs the city's business license on top of the county process, and the metro area is split across Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, so the county of your actual street address controls your county filings and your combined sales tax rate. Two storefronts a few miles apart can answer to different county offices at different rates. Confirm zoning and the certificate for the exact address before you commit to a space.

Insurance and the costs that keep coming back

Plan on three policies at a minimum. General liability covers injuries in the space, like a client slipping on a wet floor. Professional liability covers claims arising from the services themselves: an infection after a procedure, a pigment reaction, or a result a client claims was not the shape she approved. Property coverage protects your equipment, furniture, and retail stock, and business interruption coverage can carry the business if a fire or flood closes you for a month. Workers' compensation, covered above, is legally required once you regularly employ three or more people and is priced separately.

Premiums vary by city, services, and claims history, so get quotes from brokers who write beauty industry policies and compare the exclusions, not just the price. Then add the recurring state stack to the same budget: practitioner renewals on their staggered dates, the establishment renewal, the $60 LLC annual registration every spring, and your local certificate renewal. None is large on its own. Together they are a real line in the budget, and calendaring them in advance is how owners avoid late renewal fees and reinstatement charges.

Dates to put on your calendar

• Before opening: Body Art Studio permit issued by your county board of health, and a DPH Body Artist Certification for every artist.
• On any relocation, closure, or ownership change: the studio permit expires; apply fresh with the county before operating.
• January 1 to April 1, every year: LLC annual registration with the Secretary of State, $60 total, if you formed an LLC.
• April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31: quarterly unemployment tax and wage reports to the Department of Labor, if you have employees.
• Within 10 days of each hire: new hire report to the Georgia New Hire Reporting Program.
• On the Department of Revenue's schedule: sales and use tax returns for your retail product sales.
• Every year: renew your city or county occupational tax certificate on the local schedule, and keep county inspection requirements current.

Official Georgia sources for this guide

• Department of Public Health, Chapter 511-3-8 Body Art rules: studio permits, artist certification, exams and studio standards
• Department of Public Health, Body Artist Certification guidance: how certification is processed through county health departments
• Corporations Division filing fees (effective September 6, 2025): Articles of Organization and annual registration fees
• Department of Revenue, What is Subject to Sales and Use Tax?: the services versus retail split
• Department of Labor, File Tax and Wage Reports: unemployment tax accounts, the $9,500 wage base and quarterly due dates
• State Board of Workers' Compensation, insurance FAQs: the three employee threshold for coverage

This guide is general information researched from official Georgia sources, not legal or tax advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agencies linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a cosmetology license to microblade in Georgia?

No, and a cosmetology license does not authorize microblading either. Microblading is body art under Chapter 511-3-8 of the Department of Public Health rules. The artist needs a DPH Body Artist Certification in microblading, earned by passing the exam administered by the county health department at 70 or better, and may work only in a studio holding a Body Art Studio permit.

How do I get a Body Art Studio permit in Georgia?

Apply to the Health Authority, your county board of health's environmental health office, under Rule 511-3-8-.05. The permit names the specialties allowed in the studio, so apply for the microblading specialty. It is issued to one permit holder at one location, must be displayed near the front entrance, and expires if the studio relocates, closes, or changes ownership. Fees and inspection scheduling are set by the county.

How much does Georgia body artist certification cost?

The Department of Public Health is not currently charging a fee for the artist certification itself, per its published guidance. The county health department may charge an exam fee, which the rules cap at $50. Studio permit fees are set by each county, so ask your county health department for its current body art fee schedule before you budget.

Can a certified microblading artist work from home in Georgia?

Only if the space is a permitted Body Art Studio. The rules tie practice to permitted studios that meet the chapter's design, sanitation, and record keeping standards, and the permit is issued for a specific location after the county process. A spare room without a studio permit is unlicensed practice under the chapter, however the artist is certified.

Can a Georgia microblading studio also offer permanent eyeliner?

No. Rule 511-3-8-.05 prohibits tattooing within one inch of the eye socket, with an express exception for microblading of the eyebrow. Permanent eyeliner falls on the prohibited side of that line. A Georgia body art menu is built around what the rules allow: tattooing, piercing, and microblading, each named on the studio permit and the artist's certification.

Are microblading services subject to sales tax in Georgia?

No. Georgia taxes retail sales of tangible personal property and a short list of specific services, and microblading is not on that list, so procedure fees carry no sales tax. Retail products are taxable: aftercare products a client takes home are charged the 4 percent state rate plus county and city taxes, under your Department of Revenue registration through the Georgia Tax Center.