Tanning laws · AR
Arkansas tanning laws for salon owners
Last verified
Researched and written by the TanVision team
General information, not legal advice. Check your state’s current rules.
The short answer
Arkansas sets no minimum age for indoor tanning. Before anyone under 18 tans for the first time, the owner or operator must watch a parent or legal guardian sign and date the warning statement written into Ark. Code § 20-27-2202. We found no state license, inspection, adult consent, records, eyewear, lamp or timer rule.
Arkansas at a glance
- Minimum age for UV tanning
- None. Ark. Code § 20-27-2202 lets a person under 18 tan once the owner or operator has witnessed a parent or legal guardian sign and date the statutory warning statement before the first exposure. No section bars any age. Source 1
- Parental consent
- Required under 18, once. Before a minor's initial exposure at a tanning facility, the owner or operator must witness the parent or legal guardian signing and dating the warning statement printed in § 20-27-2202. The form has lines for the operator's signature, the parent's signature, the printed names of the minor and parent, and the date. The statute sets no expiry, session cap or accompaniment rule. Source 1
- Spray tan age rule
- None. § 20-27-2201(4) defines tanning equipment as ultraviolet or other lamps that tan skin with ultraviolet radiation, and § 20-27-2201(5) defines a tanning facility by its access to that equipment, so a UV-free spray tan is outside the minors' consent rule. Source 1
- License or permit
- None found. §§ 20-27-2201 and 20-27-2202 create no license, registration or fee, and a keyword search of the Code of Arkansas Rules for "tanning" on September 29, 2026 returned one rule: the sales-tax rule that lists indoor tanning at a tanning salon as a taxable service (26 CAR § 30-502(b)(8)). Source 6
- Inspections
- No statewide statute found as of 2026-09-29.
- Operator training
- § 20-27-2201(2) defines an operator as the person the owner or equipment lessee designates to operate the facility or to help and instruct consumers, and says an operator in an apartment or condominium need not supervise directly or be on the premises at all times. No section sets a training or certification requirement. Source 1
- Time between sessions
- No statewide statute found as of 2026-09-29.
- Consent statement
- Only for minors. The parent or legal guardian of a client under 18 signs the § 20-27-2202 warning statement before the initial exposure. For a consumer who is illiterate or visually impaired, the form has an alternative where the operator reads it aloud in full in front of a witness and both sign. No section requires an adult client to sign anything. Source 1
- Client records
- No retention rule. Act 707 of 2009's title mentions record keeping, but its enacted text contains only the definitions and the minors' warning statement (§§ 20-27-2201 and 20-27-2202), with no records section or retention period. Source 1
- Injury reporting
- No statewide statute found as of 2026-09-29.
- Protective eyewear
- No duty to supply it. The minors' warning statement in § 20-27-2202 tells the reader to wear protective eyewear and warns that failing to may cause severe burns or long-term eye injury, but no section requires the facility to provide eyewear. Source 1
- Replacement lamps
- No statewide statute found as of 2026-09-29.
- Timer checks
- No statewide statute found as of 2026-09-29.
What Arkansas's tanning law covers
Arkansas's tanning law is two sections. Act 707 of 2009 added them to Title 20, Chapter 27 of the Arkansas Code. The act added them as a new subchapter 21, numbered §§ 20-27-2101 and 20-27-2102. They are codified as subchapter 22 instead, § 20-27-2201 (definitions) and § 20-27-2202 (consent required), and the Legislature's own 2017 bill cites them by those numbers. The act was approved March 31, 2009.
The law applies to any tanning facility, meaning any place or business that gives consumers access to tanning equipment. That expressly includes apartments, condominiums, health clubs and tanning salons, whether or not a fee is charged (§ 20-27-2201(5)).
The official Arkansas Code is published through LexisNexis, which we did not read. We read the enacted act and House Bill 1280 of 2017, the Legislature's own bill that reprints § 20-27-2202 in full as current law and cites § 20-27-2201 by number. The only copy of § 20-27-2201 under its code number that we read is FindLaw's, current as of March 28, 2024, and its definitions match the act's.
On September 29, 2026 we searched the General Assembly's bills and acts from every session between 1987 and 2026 for "tanning". The search reads bill text, not only titles: it found House Bill 1195 of 2023, a sales-tax bill whose title never mentions tanning. The only tanning-facility law it turned up was Act 707. The other hits were sales-tax laws and bills, Senate Bill 556 of 1991 (listed with no act number) and House Bill 1280 of 2017. The Arkansas Department of Health's own site search returned no tanning pages. City and county rules are outside this page.
At the front desk
- Check the date of birth before a client's first UV session. Anyone under 18 needs the parent or legal guardian's signed warning statement first (§ 20-27-2202).
- Have the parent or guardian sign and date that statement in front of the owner or an operator. The statute requires the owner or operator to witness the signing, so a form filled in at home and dropped off does not meet it.
- Use the statute's own wording. § 20-27-2202 prints the full warning statement, with signature lines for the operator and the parent, the printed names of the minor and parent, and the date.
- If the client is illiterate or visually impaired, read the statement aloud in full with a witness present, and have the operator and the witness sign.
- Adults sign nothing under state law. Many salons still use a signed warning statement as a house policy.
The statute asks for the parent's signature once, before the initial exposure. It sets no expiry, no limit on sessions and no rule that the parent stay in the building. Arkansas also taxes indoor tanning at a tanning salon as a service under its gross receipts tax (26 CAR § 30-502(b)(8)), which is separate from the federal tanning excise.
What the law leaves to you
The two sections have no state license, inspection, session gap, adult consent, record-keeping or injury-report duty, and no eyewear, lamp or timer rule. Federal rules for the equipment itself are covered in our FDA tanning bed rules guide, and our tanning consent form guide covers what a house warning statement usually contains.
What changed recently
Nothing since 2009. House Bill 1280 of 2017 would have banned tanning under 18 and repealed the parental-consent section; it failed on a House vote on February 7, 2017 and died in the House at sine die. The Legislature's full-text bill search, run on September 29, 2026, found no bill mentioning "tanning" in the 2025 regular, 2026 fiscal or 2026 first extraordinary sessions. In 2023-2024 it found only a sales-tax bill that reprints the existing tax on indoor tanning.
How TanVision helps
A session cannot start without a date of birth on file, and a client under the salon's minimum age (18 by default) cannot start one without guardian consent on file. Clients and guardians can sign TanVision's consent forms on their own phone or a tablet, and each signed record keeps the signature and the exact wording. Arkansas wants the owner or an operator to watch the parent sign, so have the parent sign at the desk, on a salon tablet, and check that your form carries the § 20-27-2202 wording.
Each client record shows consent status, notes and recent visits, newest first. Exposure safety refuses a typed time above the room's maximum. Compare other states on the tanning laws by state page, including neighboring Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee.
Common questions
- What is the minimum age to tan in Arkansas?
- Arkansas has none. A client under 18 may tan once a parent or legal guardian has signed and dated the warning statement in Ark. Code § 20-27-2202, with the owner or operator watching, before the first session.
- Does a parent have to come in to sign for a teenager in Arkansas?
- Yes. The statute says the owner or operator must witness the parent or legal guardian signing and dating the warning statement before the minor's initial exposure. It does not require the parent to stay during sessions.
- Do I need a state license to open a tanning salon in Arkansas?
- We found none. The tanning statute creates no license, the Code of Arkansas Rules has no tanning facility rules, and the Department of Health's site had no tanning pages as of September 29, 2026. Indoor tanning is a taxable service under the state sales tax. Check your city or county for local permits.
- Can minors get a spray tan in Arkansas?
- The consent rule does not cover it. It applies to tanning equipment, which the statute defines as lamps that tan skin with ultraviolet radiation, and Arkansas law sets no separate spray tan age.
Sources
- Act 707 of 2009 (House Bill 1920), tanning facilities; codified as Ark. Code §§ 20-27-2201 and 20-27-2202
- House Bill 1280 of 2017, as engrossed (reprints § 20-27-2202 as current law and cites § 20-27-2201)
- House Bill 1280 of 2017, bill status (died in the House at sine die)
- Search Center, all documents, keyword "tanning" (bills, acts and amendments, 1987-2026)
- Bill search, 2025 regular, 2026 fiscal and 2026 first extraordinary sessions, word "tanning" (no results)
- Code of Arkansas Rules, keyword search for "tanning" (one result: 26 CAR § 30-502)
- 26 CAR § 30-502, Services subject to tax, taxable services
- Arkansas Code § 20-27-2201, Definitions (reproduced text, cross-check only; the official code is on LexisNexis)
- Site search for "tanning" (no results)