back to tattoo laws and and piercing laws main page

Norway - Norge

Legal Basis: In 1998 the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services gave a regulation that provides specific and detailed requirements as concern the hygiene aspect in connection with tattooing and piercing - and related activities as well. It's called:

Regulation of the hygiene in connection with hairdressing, skin care, tattooing, piercing and related activities* **. This regulation is placed under the law meant to provide protection against contagious diseases and under the law about municipal health care services as well. The purpose with the regulation is to prevent spreading of contagious diseases. It's the municipal health care services that are responsible for controlling that the laid down requirements are respected.

Since 20 October 1999 Norway regulates Tattoo and PMU products as cosmetics products. They are subject to the Norwegian regulation of import, production and sales etc of cosmetic products as of 26 Oct 1995 No 871***. The EU Cosmetics Directive (76/768/EC) is transposed into Norwegian law by way of this specific regulation. Observing in 1999 that rather many colorants not allowed in cosmetics are actually being used in tattooing/PMU, the Norwegian authorities thought it only in place to subject these products to the cosmetics regulations.

This regime will last until an eventual new specific regulation has been prepared and has entered into force. This would be a possible new regulation tailored specially for these products. Norwegian authorities think the CoE resolution to be the answer to this need for a more suited regime. The Norwegian authorities hold that colorant molecules which aren’t judged safe enough to be used on the surface of the skin should definitely not be permitted as concerns permanent makeup and tattooing whereby colorants are placed in direct contact with live tissues. We wanted to bring an end to this unfortunate situation as soon as possible and saw a re-classification as a suitable mean to obtain at least some improvements right away. Whether the Norwegian present regulation is a wholly "waterproof" solution legalistically speaking, could be questioned.

Most EU countries are of the opinion that tattoo and PMU products fall outside the scope of the Cosmetics directive. The Norwegian authorities have, therefore, pushed for a harmonised regulation on the European level within the framework of the CoE ever since 1999, and are participating in DG SANCO/JRC's project took since December 2002.


Definitions: Tattooing, PMU, piercing products and practices are covered.

Licencing, education and skills: The municipal health care services must approve the premises before the activity is commenced.

Sterility requirements: Hygiene rules are described. Only sterile needles and needle holders must be used. Also the colours and solutions must be sterile. Mixing and dilutions of colours must take place in sterile equipment only. Only single use needles are permitted (new needles for every new customer). Only single use ready to use colour preparations are allowed. The rings or pegs being mounted must hold a recognized quality so as to avoid allergies. The professional must wear single use gloves when undertaking tattooing and piercing.

Special safety requirements on chemicals/materials used: -


* Forskrift 6 mai 1998 om hygienekrav for frisør-, hudpleie-, tatoverings- og hulltakingsvirksomhet m.v.
** Scaring and etching are included but activities with the purpose to heal – like acu puncture – are excluded
*** Generell forskrift 26 Okt 1995 for import, produksjon og frambud mv av kosmetikk og kroppspleieproduktene

Documents denoted by are available in Portable Document Format (.pdf)