Hawaii tanning laws for salon owners

What Hawaii's tanning law covers

Hawaii's tanning law is one section: HRS § 321-12.2, "Tanning facilities; minors; penalties." Act 205 of 2014 (House Bill 611) added it, effective July 1, 2014. It applies to any tanning facility, which the statute defines as any place that gives people access to tanning equipment, including tanning salons, health clubs, gyms, apartments, condominiums and hotels, whether or not a fee is charged (§ 321-12.2(f)).

The Legislature's search indexes the full text of every section of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. As of September 29, 2026, a search for "tanning" returns only § 321-12.2 and the chapter 321 table of contents. The index reads section bodies: "ultraviolet" finds text inside chapters 150A, 196 and 342D as well as § 321-12.2.

Section 321-12.2(e) lets the director of health adopt rules, but we found none. We searched the machine-readable text of every chapter on the Department of Health's Title 11 rules list: the only one containing "tanning" is a water-discharge permit appendix on leather tanning (HAR chapter 11-55, Appendix B), and four chapters with nothing to do with tanning (air pollution control, medical use of cannabis, emergency medical services, and cleanup of methamphetamine labs) are mostly scanned pages we could not search. The department's radiation control rules (HAR chapter 11-45) say that radiation, as they use the word, does not include ultraviolet light. The Board of Barbering and Cosmetology's rule files are scanned images we could not search, so check with that board if you offer services it licenses. City and county rules are outside this page.

At the front desk

1. Check the date of birth before any UV session. Nobody under 18 may use tanning equipment at your facility, and a parent's permission does not change that (§ 321-12.2(a)).
2. Spray equipment that emits no UV is not tanning equipment under § 321-12.2(f), so the age ban does not reach a UV-free spray booth.
3. Post the Department of Health's notice in a conspicuous place in each facility you own, lease or operate (§ 321-12.2(b)). We did not find the notice published on the department's website, so ask the department for the current version.
4. Train whoever you designate as an operator on your own procedures. The statute defines the role (§ 321-12.2(f)) but sets no training standard.

The posted notice and the fines

The director of health develops the notice, and § 321-12.2(b) says it must address four things:

• It is unlawful for a tanning facility owner, lessee or operator to allow a person under 18 to use any tanning equipment.
• An owner, lessee or operator who violates the section is subject to a fine.
• Anyone may report a violation to their local law enforcement agency.
• The health risks associated with tanning.

The director of health may fine a violator up to $250 for a first violation and up to $500 for each later violation (§ 321-12.2(c)).

What the statute leaves to you

Section 321-12.2 has no state license, inspection schedule, signed warning statement, record-keeping or injury-report duty, session gap, eyewear rule, lamp rule or timer test. Federal requirements for tanning products are covered in our FDA tanning bed rules guide. You can still use a signed warning statement as a house policy; our tanning consent form guide covers what one usually contains.

What changed recently

The statute has not changed since 2014; its history note lists only L 2014, c 205, § 2. In 2026, Senate Bill 2491 and House Bill 1857, broad bills on health-care terminology, would have changed the exemption in § 321-12.2(d) from "any physician duly licensed to practice medicine" to "any qualified health care provider". Neither bill moved after its first committee: the last actions on the Legislature's status pages are dated February 20, 2026 (SB 2491) and February 11, 2026 (HB 1857). Neither is law as of September 29, 2026. Separately, Act 225 of 2023 bars the sale of new fluorescent lamps in Hawaii from 2025 and 2026, but it exempts any lamp used in a sunlamp product (HRS § 196-103), so replacement tanning lamps are outside that ban. The Legislature's document search finds no other 2025 or 2026 measure that mentions tanning equipment.

How TanVision helps

TanVision's minimum age is 18 by default, and a session cannot start without a date of birth on file. In Hawaii a parent's permission never makes a minor eligible for a UV bed, so set Minors and UV rooms to No at Settings > Tanning rules: check-in then refuses UV rooms to any client under 18, even with guardian consent on file, while a parent's consent still opens spray rooms. At Yes, the default, consent on file lets a younger client start a session in any room, UV included, with only a warning on screen.

If you use a warning statement, TanVision's consent forms let clients sign on their own phone or a tablet, and each signed record keeps the signature and the exact wording. A session cannot start without a signed statement on file. Exposure safety refuses any typed time above the room's own maximum, and each client record shows recent visits newest first, consent status and notes. With a USB 2D barcode scanner, Scan ID reads the date of birth from the barcode on a US or Canadian driver's license or ID card and records the day the ID was checked; it does not compare the photo with the person. Compare other states on the tanning laws by state page.