Minnesota

What the form asks in Minnesota

Minnesota’s rule names things the standard waiver form did not ask. A shop in Minnesota gets them by default: the questions on its form, the rest on its record in the shop app.

• The artist's license number on the signed waiver, from the shop's artist list“Name and license number of the technician” ("The records of the procedure must be kept for three years and must be available for inspection by the commissioner upon request." - Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 4)

What the record must capture

• The date of the procedure
• Name, age and current address from the client's picture ID
• The signed and dated authorization form
• A description of the body art procedure performed
• Name and license number of the technician
• A copy of the signed informed consent form
• For a client under 18, the parent's signed consent form

Before any procedure the technician has to see one of five documents: a state driver's license or ID card with photo and date of birth, a US military ID, a passport, a resident alien card, or a tribal ID.

"The records of the procedure must be kept for three years and must be available for inspection by the commissioner upon request." - Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 4

A license on a phone in Minnesota

Minnesota does not issue a digital license. A license on a phone is not an ID a shop here can rely on.

What we read: Minnesota DPS Driver and Vehicle Services, 'Driver's license and ID card information' (dps.mn.gov), 2026-09-11: no electronic or mobile license offered or mentioned. DVS 2026 Legislative Bulletin (assets.dps.mn.gov, the summary of 2026 laws affecting DVS): no electronic-license law. Minn. Stat. ch. 171 full text (revisor.mn.gov) searched for mobile/electronic/digital credential language: none. HF 1335 status (revisor.mn.gov): introduced 02/24/2025, referred to Transportation Finance and Policy, no further action. Apple Wallet, Google Wallet and TSA lists (2026-09-11): Minnesota absent.

On waivers.tattoo: a shop can let its clients choose a saved photo of their ID in Settings. It starts off, and in Minnesota a saved photo is only ever a picture of a card: a copy for your file, never proof of age.

Minors

18+. No minors, even with a parent. A parent can authorize a body piercing for someone under 18 if the parent is present, both show ID, the parent proves the relationship, and the parent signs the consent and disclosure forms in front of the technician. Never a tattoo, and never a nipple or genital piercing, branding, scarification, suspension, subdermal or microdermal implant, or tongue bifurcation.

"Tattooing an individual under the age of 18 is a gross misdemeanor, regardless of parental or guardian consent." - Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 2(b)

On waivers.tattoo: your form takes 18+ for a tattoo in Minnesota, and tells the client which rule says so.

Piercing a minor

18+ to sign alone. Minors only with conditions. The parent or legal guardian has to be present, show one of the listed photo IDs, produce documentation that reasonably establishes they are the parent or guardian, the minor has to show their own ID or a current student ID, and the parent signs both the consent form and the disclosure and authorization form in front of the technician.

Piercing the outer perimeter or the lobe of the ear with a presterilized single-use stud-and-clasp system is excluded from 'body piercing'.

Off limits for a minor even with consent: nipple or genital piercing, branding, scarification, suspension, subdermal implantation, microdermal, or tongue bifurcation under 18, regardless of parental consent.

Tattooing anyone under 18 is a gross misdemeanor regardless of consent; the piercing conditions run on the technician's and establishment's licences.

Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 2 The text

On waivers.tattoo: turn on Piercing under 18 in Settings and a client under 18 gets a parent-or-guardian section — who they are, how they are related, their own signature, and a photo of their ID. The signed waiver prints what Minnesota requires, and the form refuses nipple and genital piercings.

What the consent form must say

• That a tattoo is permanent and removal takes a surgical procedure
• That any effective removal may leave scarring
• For a piercing, that it may leave scarring
• The client's signature and the date

"Before performing a body art procedure, the technician shall obtain from the client a signed and dated informed consent form." - Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 3

Health history and aftercare

A separate disclosure and authorization form asks whether the client has diabetes, a history of hemophilia, skin disease or sensitivity to soaps and disinfectants, epilepsy or fainting, or takes blood thinners, and the client signs and dates it. The form has to say the technician will not work on a client who does not complete and sign it, and may decline if a condition shows up. Aftercare goes to the client verbally and in writing and must spell out the difference between normal irritation and infection.

"A technician shall provide each client with verbal and written instructions for the care of the tattooed or pierced site upon the completion of the procedure." - Minn. Stat. § 146B.07, subd. 5

Texting your clients in Minnesota

9am to 9pm, the rule does not say whose clock. Minn. Stat. § 325E.30 (time of day limit); §§ 325E.26 (definitions), 325E.31 (remedies), in force since 1987. It does not say whether a text is a call. Treat it as if it is.

Consent. Minnesota does not set a consent standard for a marketing text. It defines the conduct out of reach instead: a "commercial telephone solicitation" is only an UNSOLICITED call to a residential subscriber where the initiator "has not had a prior business or personal relationship with the subscriber" (Minn. Stat. § 325E.26, subd. 4). A solicited message, or one to someone with a prior business relationship, is not a commercial telephone solicitation at all.

Your own clients. Minn. Stat. § 325E.26, subd. 4: a call is a "commercial telephone solicitation" only "when the person initiating the call has not had a prior business or personal relationship with the subscriber." no time limit is stated, the relationship need only be prior. § 325E.27(b) separately exempts "messages to subscribers with whom the caller has a current business or personal relationship" from the prerecorded-voice ban.

It reaches your sender too. A service that texts on your behalf is inside this rule with you. Hiring one does not move the duty off the shop.

A caller shall not use an automatic dialing-announcing device nor make any commercial telephone solicitation before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. The text

Minn. Stat. § 325E.31(a): violations of §§ 325E.27–.30 carry "the penalties and remedies, including a private right of action to recover damages, as provided in section 8.31" (Minn.

Federal law is the floor under it: 8am to 9pm, the client’s local time, prior express written consent for a marketing text, and a STOP honored within 10 business days (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(1), (e)).

What to do

• Ask separately. A yes to marketing texts belongs on its own tick, not folded into the box a client has to accept to get tattooed. Keep it with the date and what it said.
• Text between 9am to 9pm, the rule does not say whose clock. An area code is not where somebody lives, so when you cannot tell, use the tighter window.
• Honor a STOP that day. Federal law gives you 10 business days. Same-day is the version nobody argues with, and it is what the carriers expect.
• Keep the count low. Minnesota sets no cap and neither does federal law, but a shop that texts a client more than a couple of times a month is teaching them to reply STOP.

Who inspects you

The commissioner of health issues the establishment license and each technician's license and does the inspections, so there is one state door rather than a county one. Counties and cities keep their own zoning, building, nuisance and general business licensing on top of it, but the body art rules themselves are state.

Body Art Licensing (body art establishment licenses and body art technician licenses under Minn. Stat. ch. 146B)

MDH inspects a provisionally licensed shop within 1 year of issuance, then at least once during each 2-year license period. The inspector reviews the shop and any records needed to show the chapter's standards are met; refusing to permit an inspection is valid grounds to deny or revoke the license.

Licensing

Your shop. Yes, a body art establishment license from the commissioner of health, renewed every 2 years; you get a provisional license first and it becomes a full license after MDH inspects.

Your artists. Yes, every technician needs an individual MDH license, valid 2 years from issuance and renewed with approved continuing education.

The licensing page

Using a generic waiver app in Minnesota

A generic waiver app is one form builder for every industry — rafting outfits, gyms, trampoline parks and tattoo shops all start from the same blank template. The tattoo part is yours: you write the questions, you keep them current when the rule changes, and you find out whether you got it right when an inspector reads your file.

In Minnesota that is 1 thing to set up and keep in step yourself:

• The artist's license number on the signed waiver, from the shop's artist list

On waivers.tattoo, a shop in Minnesota gets all of it the day it starts. Your page opens with Minnesota’s questions already on the form, your client signs on their own phone, and the signed waiver prints what they answered.

Minnesota in our state-by-state posts

• Texting your tattoo clients: the hours, the caps, and all 51 state rules
• Can a minor get a tattoo with parental consent? State by state
• Can a minor get a piercing with parental consent? 45 states say yes, each on its own terms
• Do you have to ask health questions before a tattoo? 20 states say yes. Here are the questions.
• Do you have to give tattoo aftercare instructions in writing? 38 states say yes.
• What has to be on a tattoo consent form? 32 states say. Here is every line they name.
• 26 states make you check ID before a tattoo. The other 25 give you a reason to.
• How long do you have to keep tattoo consent forms? Every state, one table