Indiana Laws, Rules, and Professional Ethics
This domain tests the Indiana licensing framework - Indiana Code 25-8 and the Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners rules in 820 IAC 5, administered through the Professional Licensing Agency - plus scope of practice and the conduct standards the Board enforces.
Licensing rules
- A current Indiana manicurist license is required to perform nail services, and it must be displayed as the rule requires.
- Work only in a licensed salon. Booth renters still need a licensed shop to operate from; a shop license is separate from the individual license.
- An out-of-state license does not transfer automatically; licensure by endorsement requires an application, fee, and verification.
- Licenses renew on the Board's biennial cycle. Practicing on an expired license is unlicensed practice.
- Board discipline includes reprimand, probation, suspension, revocation, denial, and civil fines; sanitation violations and fraud are common grounds.
Scope of practice
Manicurists perform nail services only: shaping, polishing, artificial nails, and cosmetic pedicuring. Not permitted: diagnosing or treating disease, cutting living tissue, shaving callus with a blade, or using medical devices. Suspicious conditions are referred to a physician or podiatrist.
Ethics in practice
Consult and obtain consent before service, disclose acrylic and gel sensitization risks, keep client health information private, advertise truthfully, state fees up front, do not split fees with unlicensed persons, refuse service when contraindicated, and treat every client with equal respect regardless of skin tone or nail condition.
Worked example
A client with diabetes asks you to shave a thick, discolored toenail with a blade. Diabetes plus possible infection makes this medical; blade reduction of callus or nail is outside your scope. Offer soaking, gentle filing of the free edge, and a referral to a podiatrist, and note the refusal.
Traps that cost marks
Assuming an out-of-state license transfers, believing booth renters need no shop license, thinking a manicurist may perform esthetic skin care, and treating ethics as vague politeness rather than enforceable rule-based conduct.