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How to Start a Microblading Studio in Michigan: Licenses, Costs & Requirements

Michigan does not license microblading artists, and the cosmetology board has nothing to do with the trade. Microblading is body art, regulated by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services under Part 131 of the Public Health Code: the license belongs to the facility, it costs $500 a year in the statute, it expires at midnight on December 31, and practicing anywhere but a licensed facility is an imminent danger the state can order stopped. The room, not the artist, is the credential.

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

The regulator: MDHHS body art licensing under Part 131

A microblading studio in Michigan is a body art facility, and it answers to a health department rather than a beauty board. Body art facilities are licensed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, MDHHS, under Part 131 of the Public Health Code, Act 368 of 1978. The Cosmetology Board in LARA has no role in the trade. Part 131 works from its own definition: under MCL 333.13101, a tattoo is an indelible mark made by insertion of pigment under the skin, or an indelible design made by production of scars other than by branding, and permanent cosmetics and microblading fall under that definition. A body art facility is a location where an individual performs tattooing, branding, or body piercing, with body piercing excluding ear perforation.

MDHHS states the operating rule in plain terms: individuals shall not tattoo, brand, microblade, or perform body piercing unless it occurs at a body art facility licensed by MDHHS. The statute carries the same duty with teeth. Under MCL 333.13104(1), an individual shall not tattoo, brand, or perform body piercing on another individual unless it occurs at a body art facility licensed under Part 131, and practice outside a licensed facility is treated as an imminent danger subject to an order to cease from MDHHS or a local health department. There is no home studio or salon chair route outside that sentence: the procedure is lawful where the facility is licensed, and nowhere else.

Michigan microblading requirements at a glance

Practitioner credentials: there is no artist license

Michigan issues no license, registration, or certification to the individual microblading artist. MDHHS states it directly: "Individual artists are not licensed by MDHHS, only the facility where the procedures are done must be." The credential in this trade belongs entirely to the premises, and an artist's authority to work is the authority of the licensed facility they work in. That does not make training irrelevant to the state. Under MCL 333.13107, the facility licensee must keep on file, available for local health department inspection, each technician's training and experience records, along with documentation of compliance with department educational and training requirements and hepatitis B vaccination status documentation. Training is examined through the facility's records at inspection, not through an artist application with a set hour count.

Two boundary lines matter for artists arriving from adjacent trades. An esthetician or cosmetologist license does not authorize microblading: those licenses cover skin care and cosmetology services under the Occupational Code, while microblading is body art under Part 131, licensed by MDHHS through the facility. An esthetics studio that adds microblading needs its cosmetology framework for the esthetics work and a licensed facility for the microblading, which the Michigan esthetics guide helps map from the other side. The reverse is equally true: working as an artist in a licensed facility confers no cosmetology authority, so brow shaping, facials, and lash services each need their own basis. Renewal mechanics here follow the body art calendar covered below, not the MiPLUS anniversary cycle the cosmetology boards use.

The establishment credential: the MDHHS body art facility license

The license belongs to the facility, and the owner or operator applies for it on the MDHHS application form and pays the fee at application. The statutory fees in MCL 333.13104 are an annual license of $500 paid at application, with no separate statutory application fee, a temporary license of $150 for a fixed location of not more than 14 consecutive days, a rule that a new annual application filed on or after July 1 pays 50 percent of the annual fee, a late renewal fee of $250 if the renewal application is not submitted on or before December 1, and a duplicate license fee of $50. One pricing caution belongs in every budget: section 13104(8) adjusts the fees annually for inflation, capped at 5 percent a year, so the amounts MDHHS currently charges may run above the statutory figures quoted here. Confirm the current charge on the MDHHS application before relying on the statutory number.

The license runs on a fixed calendar rather than an anniversary. The annual license is effective for up to 1 year and expires at midnight on December 31, and renewal applications are due on or before December 1 each year under MCL 333.13106, which is why the late fee is keyed to December 1. The facility's ongoing duties under MCL 333.13107 are operational: the licensee must maintain a bloodborne infectious disease prevention and exposure control plan that complies with the MIOSHA standards, must ensure that the owner, employees, and any individual engaged in the procedures or in cleaning instruments receives training annually on bloodborne infectious diseases, and must keep the technician records described above on file. Client rules complete the framework: under MCL 333.13102, no tattooing, branding, or body piercing may be performed on a minor without the prior written informed consent of a parent or legal guardian, executed in the presence of the licensee or its employee, with the minor's birth certificate or proof of guardianship presented.

Forming your LLC: the $50 filing and the February 15 annual statement

Most Michigan microblading studio owners form a limited liability company so the debts and legal problems of the business stay with the business instead of following them home. An LLC is formed by filing Articles of Organization, Form 700, with the Corporations Division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and the filing fee is $50 under MCL 450.5101. Filing runs online through the state's filing portal, and the company needs a resident agent and a registered office in Michigan, because that is where the state and process servers reach it. A professional LLC files Form 701 instead, also for $50, but the standard Form 700 is the filing for a microblading studio.

The recurring duty is the annual statement, and Michigan's version is gentle but not toothless. Every LLC files an annual statement of resident agent and registered office with LARA not later than February 15 of each year, for a $25 fee, and an LLC formed after September 30 does not have to file a statement on the immediately following February 15. There is no late fee for a standard LLC. The consequence arrives on a longer fuse: if an LLC fails to file annual statements for 2 consecutive years, the administrator sends a notice, and if the missing statements and fees are not filed within 60 days after that notice, the LLC is not in good standing. While it is not in good standing, no certificate of good standing will issue, its name becomes available for use by another entity, and the administrator accepts no filings from it except a certificate of restoration of good standing, which costs $50. The LLC is not dissolved, it remains in existence, and it may continue to transact business while it restores itself. Adopt a written operating agreement even though it is never filed; it governs the money between members, and the statutory defaults are a poor substitute in a two owner business.

Registering your assumed name

Michigan calls a trade name an assumed name, and where you file yours depends on what kind of business you are, which is the detail out of state guides routinely get wrong. A sole proprietor or a general partnership files a certificate of assumed name with the county clerk of each county where the business is conducted or a location is maintained, under Act 101 of 1907. The county filing costs $6, the certificate runs for a term of 5 years, and a renewal certificate filed with the county clerk before expiration costs $4 and extends the name for another 5 years. Letting the term lapse is treated as abandonment of the name, so the renewal date belongs on the calendar from the day the business opens.

An LLC takes the state route instead. It files a certificate of assumed name with LARA for $25, and the certificate expires on December 31 of the fifth full calendar year following the year it was filed. The LLC can extend the name for additional consecutive 5 year periods with a renewal certificate, also $25, filed within 90 days before expiration, and the administrator must notify the LLC no later than 90 days before the name expires. A corporation pays $10 for its certificate of assumed name on the same December 31 term. One point owners miss: the filing only bites when the business trades under a name different from its own legal name. A microblading studio that opens under the exact name on its Articles of Organization needs no assumed name filing at all, while the same business trading under a shorter storefront name needs the certificate in place before the sign goes up.

Getting your federal Employer Identification Number

Your Employer Identification Number is the one free, fast step in a Michigan opening. Apply on the IRS website and the number issues immediately; every LLC and corporation needs one for banking and payroll, and a sole proprietor needs one once they have employees. Michigan paperwork keys off it: if the business has an EIN, that number doubles as the Treasury account number for the state tax registrations covered below, and the unemployment insurance registration runs under it as well. Your bank and your card processor will ask for it before the first account opens. Get it after the entity exists and before the first state application, so the number never becomes the bottleneck when you sign a lease or set up payroll.

Sales tax: untaxed services and taxable retail

Michigan's sales tax is simpler than most states' because there is only one rate and only one level of government collecting it. The state sales tax is 6 percent on retail sales of tangible personal property, and Michigan has no city, local, or county sales tax, so the rate at the register is 6 percent anywhere in the state. The tax reaches retail transfers of tangible personal property, which means the service charge itself sits outside it: the microblading service itself, the consultation, the procedure, and the touch up, carry no sales tax. What a client takes home is different. Shampoo, cosmetics and other products the client takes home are taxable retail sales, and any property that goes with the customer in connection with a service is treated as a sale at retail. The business collects the 6 percent from the customer on those products and holds it for the state, so the point of sale has to itemize services and products separately from day one.

Before the first retail sale, register with the Department of Treasury. Registration runs through Michigan Treasury Online, using the Start a New Business e-registration, or on paper with Form 518, the Registration for Michigan Taxes. The online application is recognized within 15 minutes and processed within up to 48 hours, and if the business has an EIN it doubles as the Treasury account number. Registration issues the sales tax license, and the license runs on a calendar term: it is valid January through December of the current calendar year and is renewed annually. A business that sells tangible personal property alongside its services must hold the license even if retail is a small share of revenue, because the duty attaches to the retail sales, not to the size of the product shelf.

Working inside a salon or another studio: two frameworks under one roof

Microblading is often added to a salon, a lash studio, or an esthetics practice, and Michigan's answer is that the frameworks stack rather than merge. The body art facility license attaches to the location where the procedures are done, under MDHHS and the local health department, and any salon or esthetics licenses on the same premises cover those services and nothing else. A microblading room inside a licensed salon therefore sits under two systems at once: the cosmetology framework for the salon's work, and the Part 131 facility license for the body art, each with its own inspector and its own renewal calendar. Neither license borrows authority from the other, and neither inspector clears the other system's work.

For the individual artist, chair rental logic does not transfer, because there is no individual license for a rental credential to sit on. An artist who works in a licensed facility works under that facility's license, inside its exposure control plan, training cycle, and records system. An artist who sets up alone, even in a single rented room, is operating a body art facility and needs the license in their own right for that location. Short engagements follow the framework's own route: Part 131 provides the temporary license, $150, for a fixed location of not more than 14 consecutive days, the credential built for event work inside the system.

Hiring staff: withholding, unemployment, and wages

The first hire triggers the employer stack, and Michigan folds much of it into the registration you may already have filed. Form 518, the Registration for Michigan Taxes, registers a business for sales tax, use tax, income tax withholding, corporate income tax and unemployment insurance tax in one filing, and the Michigan Treasury Online e-registration replaces it online. An employer required to withhold federal tax must deduct and withhold Michigan income tax at 4.25 percent. Unemployment tax is paid entirely by the employer, and the Unemployment Insurance Agency issues the unemployment account number. A new non-construction employer pays 2.7 percent plus one third of its chargeable benefits component in year one, on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages for 2026 for employers in good standing, or on the first $9,500 for employers who do not meet the good standing criteria. Quarterly Wage and Tax reports are due even with no employees and no wages to report, and account management now runs in the new MiUI system, because MiWAM was permanently retired on November 2, 2026.

Two wage floor and coverage rules complete the stack. The Michigan minimum wage effective January 1, 2026 is $13.73 an hour, and the tipped minimum wage is $5.49 an hour provided the employee receives at least $8.24 in tips. Both rates are already scheduled to rise: on January 1, 2027 the full rate goes to $15.00 and the tipped rate to $6.30, so a business opening late in 2026 should build the higher floor into its pricing from the start. Workers' compensation runs under the Worker's Disability Compensation Act, which reaches private employers who regularly employ 3 or more employees at one time, and employers with fewer than 3 employees if at least one employee has been regularly employed at 35 or more hours a week for 13 weeks or longer during the preceding 52 weeks. An employer under the act secures payment of compensation through a policy from an insurer authorized to transact workers' compensation insurance in Michigan, or through authorized self-insurance.

The local layer: health department inspections and local fees

In most beauty trades the local layer is a footnote; in Michigan body art it is half the licensing system. Under MCL 333.13105 and 333.13108, the local health department must inspect each facility before licensure and at least annually after that, and convey the results and its recommendation to MDHHS, which must receive a compliant inspection result before issuing an annual license. MDHHS authorizes local health departments to enforce Part 131, and a local governing entity may fix and require fees from applicants and licensees for the services the local health department performs, separate from and on top of the state license fee. The state fee is shared with the enforcing department: MDHHS distributes 50 percent of the annual and late fees, 75 percent of the temporary fee, and 50 percent of the duplicate fee to the local health department.

The practical sequence follows from that structure. Start with the local health department for the address, not only with MDHHS: confirm the inspection process, the local fee schedule, and the timeline before the buildout is finished, because the pre-licensure inspection stands between the finished studio and the license. Zoning and occupancy still come from the city or township. The business layer in this guide runs underneath all of it: the entity, the assumed name, the Treasury registration for retail aftercare products, and the employer registrations the moment anyone is hired.

Insurance and the costs that keep coming back

The licensing layers above do not condition a license on a bond or an insurance filing, which makes Michigan simpler than states that build coverage into the application; the one coverage that is a legal duty rather than a choice is workers' compensation coverage for employees who fall under the act, covered in the hiring section. Insurance enters through the lease and through prudence: landlords require general liability coverage with the landlord named as an additional insured before handing over keys, and a working microblading studio carries professional liability for its services and property coverage for the buildout, equipment and retail inventory.

Recurring state costs are predictable once they are listed in one place: the LLC annual statement at $25 each February, the assumed name renewal on its 5 year cycle, the sales tax license renewed annually on its January to December term, quarterly Wage and Tax reports whether or not wages were paid, and the practitioner and facility renewals on the cycles the calendar section lays out. Budget the renewal dates properly, because Michigan mixes fixed calendar deadlines, like February 15 and December 1, with anniversary dates keyed to the day a license first issued, and the two kinds are easy to confuse.

Your Michigan renewal calendar

• On or before December 1 every year: the body art facility renewal application is due to MDHHS; missing that date adds a $250 late renewal fee
• At midnight on December 31 every year: the annual body art facility license expires
• Every year: annual bloodborne infectious disease training for the owner, employees, and anyone engaged in procedures or instrument cleaning, with technician training and experience records kept on file
• At least annually: local health department inspection of the facility, in addition to the inspection before licensure
• Every year, not later than February 15: the LLC annual statement is due to LARA at $25; an LLC formed after September 30 skips the immediately following February 15
• Every quarter: Wage and Tax reports are due to the Unemployment Insurance Agency in MiUI, even with no employees and no wages to report
• Every year, January through December term: the sales tax license renews with the Department of Treasury
• January 1, 2027: the minimum wage rises to $15.00 and the tipped wage to $6.30
• Every 5 years: a county assumed name certificate renews at $4 before expiration; an LLC certificate of assumed name renews at $25, filed within 90 days before its December 31 expiration

Official Michigan sources for this guide

• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Body Art Facility Licensing: the rule that procedures including microblading occur only at a licensed facility, and the statement that individual artists are not licensed, only the facility
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.13104: the facility license requirement, the $500 annual fee, the $150 temporary fee, the July 1 half fee rule, the $250 late fee, the $50 duplicate fee, and annual inflation adjustment
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.13101: Part 131 definitions, including tattoo as an indelible mark made by insertion of pigment under the skin
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.13106: the annual license term expiring at midnight on December 31 and renewal applications due on or before December 1
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.13102: the bar on tattooing, branding, or body piercing a minor without prior written informed consent of a parent or legal guardian
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 450.4207a: annual statements, the 2 year and 60 day good standing rule, and restoration of an LLC
• Department of Treasury, Who Needs a Sales Tax License: the 6 percent rate, the absence of any local sales tax, and registration for businesses that sell tangible personal property
• Department of Treasury, New Business registration: Michigan Treasury Online e-registration and Form 518 for sales tax, withholding, and unemployment insurance

This guide is general information researched from official Michigan 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 I need a personal license to microblade in Michigan?

No. MDHHS states: Individual artists are not licensed by MDHHS, only the facility where the procedures are done must be. Microblading is body art under Part 131 of the Public Health Code, and the procedure may occur only at a body art facility licensed by MDHHS. The facility keeps each technician's training and experience records on file for inspection.

How much does a Michigan body art facility license cost?

The statutory fees in MCL 333.13104 are a $500 annual license paid at application, a $150 temporary license for a fixed location of not more than 14 consecutive days, a $250 late renewal fee if the renewal application is not submitted on or before December 1, and a $50 duplicate license fee. A new annual application filed on or after July 1 pays 50 percent. The fees are adjusted annually for inflation, capped at 5 percent a year, so the current MDHHS charges may run above the statutory figures.

When does a Michigan body art facility license expire and renew?

The annual license expires at midnight on December 31, and renewal applications are due on or before December 1 under MCL 333.13106. A renewal application that misses the December 1 date draws the $250 late renewal fee in addition to the license fee. The local health department inspects the facility before licensure and at least annually, and may charge its own fees on top of the state fee.

Does an esthetician or cosmetology license authorize microblading in Michigan?

No. Microblading is body art regulated by MDHHS under Part 131 of the Public Health Code, not a cosmetology service. An esthetician or cosmetology license does not authorize it, and the procedures may be performed only at a body art facility licensed by MDHHS, whatever other licenses the artist or the premises hold.

Can a minor be microbladed in Michigan?

Part 131 bars tattooing, branding, or body piercing on a minor without the prior written informed consent of a parent or legal guardian under MCL 333.13102. The consent must be executed in the presence of the licensee or its employee, and the minor's birth certificate or proof of guardianship must be presented. Microblading falls under the statutory definition of tattoo.

Are microblading services subject to sales tax in Michigan?

The service charge sits outside the sales tax, because Michigan taxes retail sales of tangible personal property. Retail aftercare products a client takes home are taxable at the 6 percent state rate, and Michigan has no local sales tax. Register through Michigan Treasury Online e-registration or paper Form 518; the sales tax license runs January through December and renews annually.