How long should a shop keep signed consent forms?

There is not one national answer to how long a signed consent or release form needs to be kept. Some states set a minimum retention period for tattoo and body art records, others leave it to the shop, and the number that applies to you depends on your state's health department or licensing board rules.

Given that spread, the safe move is to check directly rather than assume a number from a forum post or a different state's shop. Your state board is the source that actually governs your license.

Whatever the required minimum turns out to be, keeping records longer rather than shorter is generally the lower risk choice, since a form is easy to store and hard to recreate later.

Turbo Link stores signed consent and release forms digitally as part of the client record, so they stay attached to the client rather than living in a filing cabinet or a drawer.