Art Corpus is a tattoo and piercing studio at 49 rue Greneta, 75002 Paris, open Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00–19:30 and closed Sunday and Monday. It has run from the same address since 2004 and works as a team of eight: six resident tattooers, one dedicated piercer and a manager. Piercings are handled on a shorter counter, 12:00–18:30, so a late-afternoon walk-in for a lobe or cartilage piercing can still be turned away even though the shop is open. Lobe piercings start at €30 and outer cartilage is €40; tattoos are quoted per project with a deposit of €50 to €300 taken at booking. The one thing to know before you go: Art Corpus does not book tattoos by phone or email if you live in the Paris region. You have to come in.
Art Corpus at a Glance
Address | 49 rue Greneta, 75002 Paris (2nd arrondissement, Sentier / Montorgueil) |
Nearest metro | Étienne Marcel (line 4), about 3 minutes’ walk; Réaumur-Sébastopol (lines 3 and 4), about 4 minutes |
Tattoo hours | Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00–19:30. Closed Sunday and Monday |
Piercing hours | Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00–18:30 (one hour earlier than the shop’s closing time) |
Phone | 01 40 13 07 34 (+33 1 40 13 07 34 from abroad) |
Opened | 2004, at the same rue Greneta address |
Team | Eight people: six tattooers, one piercer, one manager |
Booking a tattoo | In person only for Paris-region clients. Remote clients can arrange by email |
Piercing prices | Lobe from €30, outer cartilage €40 |
Tattoo deposit | €50 to €300 depending on the project, deducted from the final price |
Where Is Art Corpus and How Do You Get There?
Art Corpus sits at 49 rue Greneta in the 2nd arrondissement, a narrow street running between the Sentier garment district and the Montorgueil food market. The closest metro is Étienne Marcel on line 4, roughly three minutes on foot, with Réaumur-Sébastopol on lines 3 and 4 about a minute further. Both put you within a short walk of Les Halles, so the studio is easy to fold into a day already spent in central Paris.
Rue Greneta is a working street rather than a tourist one, and the studio is a ground-floor shop rather than a signposted destination, so check the street number. If you are planning the visit around other stops, the surrounding blocks between Montorgueil and Réaumur are dense with cafes and shops, which makes the neighbourhood a practical base for a half-day in the city of Paris.
What Are Art Corpus’s Opening Hours?
Art Corpus opens Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 to 19:30 and closes Sunday and Monday. The piercing counter keeps shorter hours, running 12:00 to 18:30, which is the detail most visitors get wrong. Arriving at 19:00 for a lobe piercing means arriving after the piercer has stopped taking clients, even though the shop lights are still on and tattoo appointments are still running.
Those hours are what the studio publishes, and French shops of this size adjust around public holidays and August closures without always updating listings. A call to 01 40 13 07 34 before travelling across the city costs nothing and settles it.
How Do You Book a Tattoo at Art Corpus?
If you live in the Paris region, Art Corpus does not take tattoo appointments by phone or by email. The studio asks you to come to the shop in person to discuss the project, whether it is feasible, how long it will take and what it will cost. Clients travelling from outside the region are the exception and can arrange things remotely.
That policy is a filter rather than an obstacle. A custom piece needs a conversation about placement, size and the artist whose style actually fits the idea, and that conversation is faster in front of a portfolio than over a message thread. Budget one visit to talk and a second, later, to get tattooed. A deposit between €50 and €300 is taken when the appointment is fixed, scaled to the size of the project, and it comes off the final price rather than being charged on top.
Piercings work differently. They are handled at the counter during piercing hours and do not need the same project consultation, so a walk-in before 18:30 is realistic.
How Much Does a Tattoo or Piercing Cost at Art Corpus?
Piercing prices are published and fixed; tattoo prices are not, because they depend entirely on the design. These are the studio’s listed piercing rates.
| Piercing | Single | Pair |
| Lobe, 1.2 or 1.6 mm jewellery | €30 | €50 |
| Lobe, 4 mm jewellery | €50 | €90 |
| Outer cartilage | €40 | — |
| Tattoo | Quoted per project after an in-person consultation. Deposit €50–€300, deducted from the final price | |
The pattern worth noticing is that the price tracks the jewellery gauge, not just the placement. A lobe piercing at 4 mm costs the same as an outer cartilage piercing plus €10, because the jewellery is the variable. If you are pricing a pair, both lobe options are cheaper as a pair than as two singles.
What Tattoo Styles Does Art Corpus Do?
Art Corpus is a custom studio with six resident tattooers, and the range across the team covers graphic and illustrative work, realism, old school and traditional. Because each artist keeps a distinct style rather than the shop working to one house look, choosing the right person matters more here than choosing the shop. The studio publishes its current roster and individual portfolios on its own artists page, which is the reliable place to check, since resident line-ups at Paris studios change from year to year.
Everything is designed for the individual client rather than picked off a flash wall, which is why the in-person consultation exists. Bring reference images, an idea of placement and a rough size. Leaving the design direction entirely open tends to slow the process down rather than speed it up.
For comparison across the city, Tin Tin Tattoos is the reference point for colour and Japanese-influenced work, and Anomaly covers a different corner of the Paris scene. Looking at two or three portfolios before committing is normal practice, not indecision.
What Piercings Does Art Corpus Do?
Art Corpus keeps one dedicated piercer rather than rotating the work among the tattooers, which is the arrangement you want: piercing is a separate craft with its own anatomy and aftercare knowledge. The counter covers standard body and ear placements, and lobe and cartilage work is priced and published as shown above.
Ear work is where most walk-ins land, and it is also where jewellery choice drives the bill. Deciding on gauge before you arrive, rather than at the counter, is the difference between a €30 lobe and a €50 one. Ask what the studio stocks in titanium if you have reacted to jewellery before.
Placement piercings such as the septum depend on individual anatomy, so a piercer who can look before quoting is worth the visit rather than the phone call. Aftercare instructions are given at the counter and are worth following literally.
Can Minors Get Tattooed or Pierced in France?
French law does not set a minimum age for tattooing or piercing. What it requires is written consent from a holder of parental authority before either procedure is performed on anyone under 18, under Décret n° 2008-149 of 19 February 2008, which sits in the Code de la santé publique. The professional has to be able to produce that written consent to inspectors for three years afterwards, so verbal permission from a parent standing in the shop is not enough on its own.
In practice, most Paris studios apply their own floor on top of the law and decline clients under 16, and many decline tattoos on minors altogether regardless of consent. That is a studio policy rather than a legal rule. If you are booking for someone under 18, ask Art Corpus directly what its own policy is before travelling, and bring written, signed authorisation and identity documents for both the minor and the parent.
What Hygiene Rules Apply to Paris Tattoo Studios?
Tattooing and piercing in France sit under a specific public-health regulation. The same Décret n° 2008-149 that governs consent for minors sets the hygiene and sanitation conditions every studio has to meet, and it is enforced through the Code de la santé publique. Practitioners must complete mandatory hygiene and sanitation training, declare their activity to the regional health authority, and work with sterile single-use needles in a dedicated, cleanable work area.
What that means for you as a client is that the baseline is legally fixed, so the useful questions are about practice rather than paperwork. Ask to see the needle opened in front of you. Look at whether the work surfaces are wipe-clean and whether gloves are changed between clients. A studio that has held one address for two decades, as Art Corpus has since 2004, has been through those inspections repeatedly, which is a reasonable proxy when you cannot judge the room yourself.
Five Mistakes to Avoid at Art Corpus
- Turning up after 18:30 for a piercing. The shop is open until 19:30, but the piercing counter is not. This is the single most common wasted trip.
- Emailing for a tattoo appointment from inside Paris. The studio will send you back to the shop. Only clients travelling from outside the region are handled remotely.
- Arriving on a Sunday or Monday. Art Corpus is closed both days, which catches out weekend visitors more than any other detail.
- Expecting a same-day custom tattoo. The consultation and the session are separate visits, and a deposit fixes the date. Plan the trip around that, not against it.
- Picking the studio before picking the artist. Six residents means six styles. Look at individual portfolios first and ask for the artist by name.
Is Art Corpus Worth Choosing?
Two decades at one address is the strongest signal a tattoo studio can give. Art Corpus opened on rue Greneta in 2004 and is still there with a stable eight-person team, in a city where studios churn. For a visitor, the practical case is that it is central, reachable from two metro lines, publishes its piercing prices openly, and separates piercing from tattooing rather than treating one as a sideline of the other.
If you are weighing it against other studios, our guide to the best tattoo shops in Paris compares walk-in policies, published prices and opening hours across fourteen shops, and flags the ones that have closed or sit outside the city.
The case against is the same policy that makes it credible. If you are in Paris for three days and want a custom tattoo, the in-person consultation plus a later session is difficult to fit in. Piercings suit a short trip; tattoos suit a return visit or a longer stay. Judge it on that rather than on convenience.
Related Resources
- Best Tattoo Shops in Paris: Walk-In Rules and Prices
- Best Hotel Bars in Paris
- Aloha Hostel
- The Paris Pass Review: Is it worth it?
Sources: address, hours, team size, piercing rates, tattoo deposit range and the in-person booking policy are published by Art Corpus at artcorpus.fr and cross-checked against its Paris business listings. Consent rules for minors come from Décret n° 2008-149 of 19 February 2008, Code de la santé publique. Walking times from Étienne Marcel and Réaumur-Sébastopol are transit-planner estimates. Last updated July 2026; prices and hours were re-verified on that date and can change without notice.
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