Premises offering tattooing, piercing, acupuncture, electrolysis, micro-blading and semi-permanent make-up in Sandwell must be registered with the council. This requirement includes when businesses are being operated from home.
Registration currently does not apply to beauty treatments involving dermal fillers, injectables or micro-needling. There is also no requirement to register to provide laser treatments / Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) in Sandwell.
You must register your premises and each member of staff who carries out treatments. There is a fee to register a premise and a fee to register each practitioner, these fees are shown on the registration form.
If you already hold a personal registration from Sandwell MBC for a skin piercing activity i.e. ear piercing, but wish to undertake an additional skin piercing activity i.e. mircoblading, then you do not need an additional personal registration but you should notify is so we can amend your personal registration certificate to reflect the additional activities. Let us know the additional activity by emailing EHTS_enquiries@sandwell.gov.uk.
If your premises are already registered as a skin piercing establishment and you wish to add an extra personal registration for a new member of staff, you only need to pay the personal registration fee for the person being added.
Once we receive your online form and payment, an officer will contact you to arrange to carry out an inspection of your premises. You will then be issued with a Certificate of Registration.
During the inspection and officer will check that the business complies with the current byelaws and with relevant health and safety legislation. Handwashing facilities with hot and cold running water must be provided in the room where the skin piercing activity is taking place.
Apply to register as a tattooist, ear piercer, acupuncturist or electrolysist
Microblading
It is preferable to use a single use, pre-sterilised tool and blade to perform microblading
However, if you opt for a reusable tool and a disposable blade, the tool needs to go through a five stage cleaning process, including a sterilisation cycle in a vacuum steam autoclave after each use. The vacuum autoclave should be a type ‘B’ or type ’S’.
Autoclaves come within the remit of the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, which means they require periodic examination in accordance with a written scheme (usually every 12-18 months). The examination of the autoclave is usually arranged through your insurance company.