Permanent Makeup Licensing in Australia: Training and Premises Checks
Permanent makeup operating requirements depend on the service and jurisdiction. Treat your course document, any required operator qualification and premises or business approvals as separate items. The examples below explain important differences in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, followed by questions to resolve for your own location.
In This Guide
Describe the Proposed Service Precisely
List the cosmetic tattooing services you intend to provide, the equipment or method and the operating address. Say whether you will work in a salon, at home or from a mobile setting. A general enquiry about “beauty services” may not describe the activity accurately enough.
Ask the relevant authority about the requirements before opening, and request links to the current rules. Keep planning or building approval, public-health registration, operator training and insurance as separate lines in your preparation record.
Queensland: A Specific Qualification and Business Licence
Queensland Health includes cosmetic tattooing and semipermanent makeup in higher-risk personal appearance services. Its guidance states that businesses offering these services need the higher-risk personal appearance service licence and operators need HLTINF005, Maintain infection prevention for skin penetration treatments. See Queensland Health’s legislation guidance.
Do not assume that a general PMU completion certificate or BBP awareness course is that designated qualification. Ask the council what evidence is required for the people who will perform the services.
Queensland’s separate tattooist licensing guidance excludes cosmetic tattooing from the body-art tattooist licence requirement. That distinction does not remove the public-health requirements above. Read the Queensland tattooist licensing information and describe any additional body-art services separately.
New South Wales: Register the Skin-Penetration Business
NSW Health includes cosmetic tattooing in its skin-penetration guidance. Businesses carrying out these procedures must be registered with the local council, meet the necessary planning and building standards and have the required approvals before opening. See NSW Health’s beauty, body-art and skin-penetration guidance.
Ask your council for its current notification or registration process and premises requirements. Include the actual address before spending money on alterations. If you intend home or mobile operation, make that clear in the enquiry.
The NSW tattooing business factsheet provides further operating guidance. A training provider’s marketing description is not a council approval.
Victoria: Understand What Registration Covers
Victoria’s Department of Health states that tattooing and skin-penetration businesses must be registered under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. The framework focuses on infection prevention; it does not endorse the quality of services or the skills and qualifications of individual practitioners. See the Department’s registered-premises guidance.
Ask the council about the requirements for your services, including approved client information, records and premises notices. Describe registration accurately in your advertising rather than presenting it as an endorsement of your technique or course.
Check Other Jurisdictions and Additional Activities
These examples are not a complete national approval checklist. For another state or territory, contact its health authority and the relevant local authority about the actual service and premises.
- Which licences, registrations and inspections apply before opening?
- Is a particular operator qualification required?
- What consent, client-information and record requirements apply?
- What changes are needed for home or mobile work?
- Do any products or additional procedures have separate requirements?
Ask for the official reference supporting each answer. Do not carry a requirement or exemption from one state into another without checking.
Keep Training Evidence and Approvals Together
For a course enquiry, obtain the curriculum, practical requirements and exact document issued on completion. Give those details to an authority or insurer that needs to assess them; do not ask it to approve an unspecified “accredited course”.
The Skinart PMU course overview describes the published learning arrangements. Confirm any separately required qualification directly rather than assuming it is included.
Record the date, contact, answer and outstanding conditions for each approval enquiry. Recheck when the premises, operators or services change. Official guidance checked September 2026; consult the linked sources again before acting.
Course Details and Next Steps
Review the current course details for Australia and contact Skinart with questions about your selected option. Existing students can return to their lessons in the academy.
