Indiana tanning laws for salon owners

Who regulates tanning in Indiana

The State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners licenses tanning facilities under IC 25-8-15.4, and its tanning rules are 820 IAC 5. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency handles applications and renewals. A final rule filed June 22, 2026 (LSA Document #25-328), effective 30 days after filing, amended 15 sections of 820 IAC 5 and repealed three. The compiled 2026 edition of 820 IAC 5 online does not show those changes yet, so read it alongside the final rule in the Indiana Register.

At the front desk, every visit

1. Check age. Nobody under 16 may use a tanning device in a tanning facility (IC 25-8-15.4-16(a)). A client aged 16 or 17 may tan only after a parent or guardian also signs the warning statement in front of the operator (IC 25-8-15.4-16(b); 820 IAC 5-1-31).
2. Before the session, have the client sign, or acknowledge electronically, that they read and understood the posted warnings, agree to wear the eyewear you provide, understand that people who do not tan in the sun may not tan under lamps, and have not tanned in the past 24 hours. This applies each time they use the facility or execute or renew a contract (820 IAC 5-1-33(a)).
3. Keep each session within the manufacturer's recommended exposure time for the client's skin type, and within that limit across any 24-hour period (820 IAC 5-1-26).
4. Hand over sanitized protective eyewear with instructions, and do not start the unit if the client will not wear it (IC 25-8-15.4-14(2), -17; 820 IAC 5-1-25).
5. Show the client how to keep the manufacturer's exposure distance and use the handrails or other aids (IC 25-8-15.4-14(3); 820 IAC 5-1-24).
6. Record the client's home address, phone number and age, and log the visit and its tanning time (820 IAC 5-1-32, 5-1-33(d)).

Staff, equipment and the license

• Display the license where people entering can see it (IC 25-8-15.4-10). Each location needs its own, and a new owner needs a new one (IC 25-8-15.4-8; 820 IAC 5-1-18, 5-1-22).
• Keep at least one operator aged 18 or older on the premises whenever you are open. A client cannot act as the operator (820 IAC 5-1-6).
• Train each operator before they serve customers, and keep the list of trained operators during their employment and for one year after (820 IAC 5-1-34).
• Post the board's warning sign where clients pay, where they wait and close to each unit, in the letter sizes the rule sets (820 IAC 5-1-29).
• Keep a kill switch for each unit outside the tanning room with a clear path to it, and sanitize body-contact surfaces between clients (820 IAC 5-1-27, 5-1-24(4)).
• Never claim tanning is safe or free from risk, and do not promote unlimited use that encourages clients to go past the manufacturer's 24-hour limits (IC 25-8-15.4-13; 820 IAC 5-1-48).

Injury reports

Report each known injury, or complaint of an injury, from a tanning device to the board by phone within 48 hours and in writing on the board's form within 7 days (IC 25-8-15.4-18). The board sends a copy to the client and to the FDA. The 2026 update repealed the separate injury rule (820 IAC 5-1-51), so the statute's deadlines are the ones to follow.

What changed in 2026

• 820 IAC 5-1-31 now matches the statute: under 16 may not tan, and 16- and 17-year-olds need a parent's or guardian's signature.
• Clients may acknowledge the warning statement electronically (820 IAC 5-1-33(a)).
• The tanning facility application and renewal fees fell from $200 to $40 each (820 IAC 7-1-1, 7-1-3).
• Eyewear must meet 21 CFR 1040.20(c)(4) and be disinfected before each use; the daily test-kit rule and the posted emergency phone list were removed (820 IAC 5-1-24, 5-1-25).
• Units are maintained under the April 2020 edition of 21 CFR 1040.20 instead of the 1988 edition (820 IAC 5-1-28, 5-1-50).
• The rule's own license-period section and its copy of the warning statement were repealed (820 IAC 5-1-17, 5-1-30); the four-year license term comes from IC 25-8-15.4-9 and the statement's wording from IC 25-8-15.4-11.
• P.L.29-2026 changed only a cross-reference in the license renewal section (IC 25-8-15.4-9).
• The board also filed a readoption (LSA Document #25-812) on September 24, 2026. Its notice listed unchanged tanning sections, including the 24-hour exposure limit, training and advertising rules, for readoption without changes to their text.

How TanVision helps

With TanVision's consent forms, clients sign on their own phone or a tablet at the counter, and each signed record keeps the exact wording and, for a minor, the parent's or guardian's name and signature. Have a parent sign on the counter tablet with the operator present. A session cannot start without a signed statement and a date of birth on file. TanVision does not collect a new acknowledgment at each visit, so Indiana's each-visit statement stays a desk step.

The minimum age is 18 by default, and with Minors and UV rooms at Yes, the default at Settings > Tanning rules, guardian consent on file lets a younger client start a session. There is no separate under-16 ban, so the desk must turn away anyone under 16 and record guardian consent only for clients aged 16 or 17. At No, check-in refuses UV rooms to everyone under the minimum age, 16- and 17-year-olds included. The gap between UV sessions starts at 24 hours, exposure safety refuses a typed time over the room's maximum, and each client record shows the client's visits, newest first, with the date, time, room, bed level and minutes. Compare other states on the tanning laws by state page, starting with neighboring Illinois.