Census CBP 2023 · NAICS 812199
How many lash, brow and tattoo studios are there in the US?
The honest answer is that nobody publishes that number, and this page shows you the bucket the federal data puts them in instead.
- With employees31,863establishments
- Without employees192,628businesses
- Employees183,545in the employer half
- Annual payroll$5.6 billionemployer half
Treat every number on this page as an upper bound on lash, brow and tattoo studios rather than a count of them. Tanning salons and day spas share the code. If you need a defensible figure for a single one of those trades, the federal data cannot give you one.
Businesses with staff, and businesses without
These are two different federal surveys covering two different universes, and adding them together without saying so is the most common way this data gets misquoted. They are kept separate here on purpose.
| Measure | Employer | Nonemployer |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 31,863 | 192,628 |
| People employed | 183,545 | None, by definition |
| Average staff each | 5.8 | Zero |
| Payroll and receipts | $5.6 billion | $6.5 billion |
| Source | Census CBP 2023 | Census NES 2023 |
The nonemployer figure is published at the five digit level, NAICS 81219, which also contains diet and weight reducing centres. It is a ceiling on the nonemployer count for 812199, not an exact match for it.
other personal care businesses with employees are 0.381 per cent of all 8,361,342 US establishments with employees
The five states with the most other personal care businesses
| State | Establishments with employees |
|---|---|
| California | 3,882 |
| Florida | 2,869 |
| New York | 2,656 |
| Texas | 2,637 |
| Illinois | 1,135 |
Employer establishments only. The nonemployer side is not published by state at this level of detail, and in most of these trades it is the larger half, so treat this table as a ranking rather than a census of the trade.
Other Personal Care Services
Counted here
Tattoo and body piercing studios, lash and brow studios, ear piercing, tanning salons, day spas, hair removal, and a long tail of other personal care services.
Counted somewhere else
Hair salons, barber shops and nail salons, all of which have their own codes.
NAICS 812199 · 1 August 2026
What these figures actually say about other personal care businesses
Every number on this page is an upper bound on lash, brow and tattoo studios rather than a count of them.
Other Personal Care Services is a catch all. Tattoo and body piercing studios, lash and brow studios, ear piercing, tanning salons, day spas and hair removal all share the code, along with a long tail of other services. There is no way to separate them from the published figures, and any single trade number derived from this code by assumption would be a guess wearing a citation.
The nonemployer figure is worse again. Census publishes it one level up, at a five digit code that also contains diet and weight reducing centres, so the nonemployer count quoted on this page is a ceiling rather than a match. Both facts are stated on the page itself rather than in a footnote, because a reader who quotes the figure needs to carry the caveat with it.
What the code does show honestly is shape. Employer businesses here average close to six employees, higher than salons or nail salons, which reflects day spas rather than one room lash studios. And the nonemployer side is only around six times the employer side, the narrowest gap of the beauty codes, which is what a code containing larger premises looks like.
A trade the federal data cannot see is a trade that cannot borrow anybody authority, which puts the entire weight of persuasion on the work itself. That is the argument for the strict shot discipline these trades need: identical light, identical framing, and no claim beyond what the pair shows.
Every figure quoted above appears in the tables on this page or is arithmetic on them. Nothing here forecasts, values a business or suggests a price, because none of the three is measurable from a business count.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, 2023, United States, NAICS 812199 Other Personal Care Services. Accessed 2026-08-01.
Counts establishments with at least one paid employee, measured in the week of 12 March 2023. A business with no employees is counted by Nonemployer Statistics instead, not here.
US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics, 2023, United States, NAICS 812199. Accessed 2026-08-01.
Counts businesses with no paid employees and at least $1,000 in annual receipts. Sole traders, single-van operators and self-employed contractors land here.
What these workers are paid
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How many lash, brow and tattoo studios are there in the US?
- Census County Business Patterns counted 31,863 other personal care businesses with at least one paid employee in 2023, employing 183,545 people on a payroll of $5.6 billion. Nonemployer Statistics counted a further 192,628 businesses with no employees, turning over $6.5 billion. NAICS code 812199.
- Why are there two different numbers?
- Because they measure two different universes. County Business Patterns counts establishments with at least one paid employee. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no employees and at least a thousand dollars of annual receipts. Together they cover every US business, and adding them without saying so would be misleading, so this page keeps them apart.
- What else is inside this code?
- Tattoo and body piercing studios, lash and brow studios, ear piercing, tanning salons, day spas, hair removal, and a long tail of other personal care services. What it excludes: hair salons, barber shops and nail salons, all of which have their own codes.
- What does this count tell somebody running one of these businesses?
- Every number on this page is an upper bound on lash, brow and tattoo studios rather than a count of them. A trade the federal data cannot see is a trade that cannot borrow anybody authority, which puts the entire weight of persuasion on the work itself. That is the argument for the strict shot discipline these trades need: identical light, identical framing, and no claim beyond what the pair shows.
- How current is this?
- 2023 is the most recent County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics release published by the Census Bureau. Both were fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.