The record
health inspectors will ask you for

What the regulations require in France

Tattooing and piercing are governed by the decree of 19 February 2008 on hygiene and sanitation conditions, and by the order of 12 December 2008 on training. Three obligations structure the activity:

• The activity declaration to the regional health agency (ARS), before starting to practise, and at every change of premises.
• Training in hygiene and sanitation rules, delivered by an accredited body, mandatory for anyone who practises — tattoo artist, piercer, including as a guest.
• Informing the client: before the procedure, in writing, about the risks, precautions and aftercare; and collecting their consent.

On top of this, since January 2022, the European REACH regulation on tattoo inks restricts several thousand substances and requires manufacturers to label precisely — batch number, composition, period of use after opening. That label is the basis of your traceability: it is what you must be able to link to each session.

Traceability, in practice

For each procedure, you must be able to find out which product was used on which client, on which date. In a studio that keeps this in a notebook, the information exists — but finding it for a session from last year takes an hour, and there is always a line missing.

KIPIK records at every appointment:

• The ink batch, the manufacturer and the date the bottle was opened
• The single-use needles and cartridges, by reference
• The client, the area, the date and the tattoo artist or piercer who performed the procedure
• For piercing: the jewellery fitted and its material

This data is entered once, at the time of the session, from your phone. The record builds itself. During an inspection, it exports as a PDF for the requested period.

Hygiene shown on the client side

Clients looking for a tattoo artist or a piercer on KIPIK see the hygiene protocol on every verified profile: single-use equipment, sterilisation, disinfection between two clients. This is not a marketing line written by you: the "verified" badge is only activated after checking the training certificate, the business identifier and the professional liability insurance. That is what separates a verified profile from a simple listing.

The tricky cases

The guest spot

You tattoo in another studio for a week. Are the inks yours or the host studio's? The record must say so. On KIPIK, a guest spot is an event in your calendar: the sessions attached to it record the batch exactly as at your own studio.

The convention

Same logic on a booth. The booth is booked and paid through the app, the calendar is blocked on the dates, and each session on site feeds the same record as the others. How KIPIK handles conventions.

The opened bottle

An ink has a period of use after opening, stated by the manufacturer. The opening date recorded in KIPIK lets you know, session after session, which bottle is reaching the end of its life.

This page describes the general regulatory framework in France. It does not replace reading the texts or consulting your regional health agency, and does not constitute legal advice.