Inspection Guides / Personal services
Salon, Spa, Tattoo and Piercing Inspections Explained
Health inspectors do not only visit restaurants. Nail salons, barbershops, spas, tattoo studios and piercing shops are inspected too, and the risks they look for are different: infections spread through skin, blood and shared tools rather than food.
Which businesses are inspected
Health authorities usually group these businesses as personal service settings. The category typically includes hair salons and barbershops, nail salons, esthetics and waxing, eyelash and eyebrow services, tattooing and micropigmentation (including microblading), body and ear piercing, electrolysis, and sometimes tanning and float tanks.
Rules differ by province and state. In Ontario, personal service settings are covered by a provincial regulation and are inspected routinely, generally at least once a year. British Columbia's health authorities classify these businesses by the services they offer, and Vancouver Coastal Health's records describe them as invasive or non-invasive. In the United States, salons are often licensed and inspected by a state cosmetology board, while tattoo and piercing studios are usually regulated by the local or state health department.
What can go wrong
Any service that breaks the skin, or that could break it accidentally, carries a risk of blood-borne infection, including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, if needles, blades or other tools are reused without proper sterilization. Bacterial skin infections, including staph infections, and fungal nail infections can spread through tools that are not cleaned and disinfected between clients.
Footbaths are a known risk. Outbreaks of skin infections have been traced to whirlpool pedicure footbaths where debris built up in the jets and pipes because they were not cleaned and disinfected properly. This is why inspectors pay close attention to footbath cleaning procedures and logs.
Clean, disinfect or sterilize: what each tool needs
Inspectors judge cleaning against the risk each tool carries. Anything that pierces the skin, such as tattoo needles, piercing needles and jewellery, and lancets, must be sterile, either single-use from a sealed package or sterilized in a steam sterilizer (autoclave). Tools that may contact broken skin need high-level disinfection or sterilization. Tools that touch only intact skin, such as combs, brushes and some nail tools, must be cleaned and then disinfected with an approved disinfectant.
Cleaning always comes first: disinfectants and sterilizers do not work properly on tools that still have hair, skin or product on them. Items that cannot be cleaned, such as porous nail files, buffers and pumice stones, must be used once and thrown away or given to the client.
What inspectors check
During an inspection, the inspector watches how staff clean their hands and change gloves between clients, and checks that a hand sink is available and stocked. They look at the disinfectants in use: whether the product is approved for the purpose, mixed to the right concentration, within its expiry date, and left on surfaces for the required contact time.
Where a sterilizer is used, they review its maintenance and test records, including regular spore tests that confirm it actually kills microorganisms. They check that single-use items are discarded, that sharps go into a proper sharps container, that clean and used tools are stored separately, and that footbaths are cleaned between clients and at the end of the day. For invasive services, client records are often required so health officials can trace clients if an infection is reported.
Warning signs you can spot yourself
You do not need to be an inspector to notice problems. Be cautious if tools come out of a drawer or jar rather than a sealed package or a closed, clean container; if the same nail file or buffer appears to be used on several clients; if a footbath is not cleaned between clients or the water looks cloudy; or if staff do not wash their hands or change gloves before starting.
At a tattoo or piercing studio, the artist should open new needles in front of you, use a fresh disposable cover for surfaces you touch, and be able to tell you how equipment is sterilized. A good operator will be happy to answer these questions. If you are not comfortable, it is fine to leave.
Reading a personal service inspection result
Personal service reports often use wording such as "adequate infection control measures are implemented" or "items are cleaned and disinfected", followed by the specific problem the inspector found. On our facility pages, these findings are grouped under hand hygiene and infection control, cleaning, disinfection and sterilization, and equipment. Higher-risk findings are the ones that could pass an infection from one client to another, like reused single-use items, disinfectant that is not working, or a sterilizer without passing test results.
As with restaurants, look for patterns rather than a single report. A missing log once is minor; repeated findings about disinfection or sterilization across several inspections are a real concern.
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