§ 33.5-2 — License required; exemptions

Sec. 33.5-2. - License required; exemptions.

(a) License required. (1) On and after July 1, 2022, it shall be unlawful for any person to operate a massage business without a valid massage business license issued by the department pursuant to this article. (2) The license shall be conspicuously posted at all times on the licensed premises. (b) Exemptions. The licensing requirements of this article do not apply to: (1) Public and private schools accredited by the state board of education or approved by the state division of private occupational schools; (2) Facilities providing massage services by employees of any governmental entity; (3) Training rooms of a recognized professional or amateur sports organization, dance troupe, bona fide athletic club, or other such athletic organization. For purposes of this subsection, a bona fide athletic club is an athletic club that receives ten (10) percent or less of its gross income from providing massages to its members or the public; (4) Offices, clinics, and other facilities at which health care professionals licensed or registered with any state provide massage services to the public in the ordinary course of their health care profession; (5) Barber shops, beauty salons, and other facilities at which barbers and cosmetologists licensed by the state provide massage services to the public in the ordinary course of their professions; (6) A place of business where a person offers to perform or performs massage for not more than seventy-two (72) hours in any six-month period and the massage is part of a public or charity event; (7) A place of business where a licensed massage therapist practices as a solo practitioner; or (8) A place of business which employs individuals who do not claim expressly or implicitly to be massage therapists and provides alternative methods that employ contact. For the purposes of this subsection, "alternative methods that employ contact" include, but are not limited to: a. Practices using reflexology, auricular therapy, and meridian therapies that affect the reflexes of the body; b. Practices using touch, words, and directed movements to deepen a person's awareness of movement patterns in his or her body, such as the Feldenkrais method, the Trager approach, and body-mind centering; c. Practices using touch or healing touch to affect the human energy systems, such as reiki, shiatsu, and meridians; d. Structural integration practices such as Rolfing and Hellerwork; and e. The process of muscle activation techniques. (c) Pattern of criminal behavior. If there is a continued pattern of criminal behavior with arrests, complaints regarding sexual misconduct, or criminal intent that is related to human trafficking disguised as a legitimate exemption under this section, the manager may, at the manager's discretion, determine that a facility is no longer exempt from licensing pursuant to subsection 33.5-2(b). (d) Records. Each massage business shall maintain books and records on the licensed premises with the following information for all employees and independent contractors who have worked at the massage business within the past five (5) years: (1) The employee or contractor's name, date of birth, and contact information; (2) The employee or contractor's start and end date of employment or service; and (3) A valid copy of a massage therapist license for each person required by state law to be licensed as a massage therapist.

(Ord. No. 712-21, § 1, 7-19-21; Ord. No. 1003-25, § 20, 7-28-25)