What is a personal appearance service?
Personal appearance services (PAS) include beauty therapy, hair dressing, or skin penetration procedures (e.g. tattooing, body piercing, scarring and implants) that are provided as part of a business transaction as defined under the Public Health (Infection Control for Personal Appearance Services) Act 2003.
Who requires a PAS licence?
Personal appearance services are classed into two categories, higher risk and non-higher risk.
Only those activities classed as "higher risk" personal appearance services are required to be licensed with Council. These activities include;
- body piercing (does not include ear and nose piercing with a gun),
- implanting natural or synthetic substances into a person's skin (for example hair or beads),
- scarring or cutting a person's skin using a sharp instrument to make a permanent mark, pattern or design,
- tattooing, and
- tattoo removal involving skin penetration
Whether accidental or not, personal appearance services that involve skin penetration can spread blood-borne diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C and are therefore deemed "higher risk" activities. These diseases are spread by blood-to-blood contact due to contaminated instruments from an infected person being used on another person without adequate precautions.
Businesses that do not require a licence with Council to operate are non-higher risk personal appearance services. These include:
- Beauty and nail services;
- Hairdressing services; and
- Closed ear and nose piercing (i.e. with a gun).
However, operators are still required to comply with other relevant requirements, including:
- making sure planning approval is obtained,
- complying with the Queensland Health Infection Control Guideline for Personal Appearance Services
It is recommended that the following departments be contacted to discuss their requirements:
- Planning and Development Services to determine if any planning approvals are required.
- Building Department to discuss any building requirements.
- Trade Waste Department to determine if any trade waste approvals are required.