The Tattooing skill in The Sims 4 comes with the Businesses and Hobbies expansion, and you level it by practicing on the pack’s tattoo chair, then tattooing other Sims for real. Higher levels unlock more stamps and stencils and raise the odds of an excellent result, and the same pack lets you charge for the work as a Small Business. Below we cover what you need, how to practice, what Tattoo Paint Mode and layering do, how to earn from it, and which patches changed tattoos since 2025.
What You Need
Tattooing is a pack skill, not a base game one. Per the expansion’s official description, “with the new Tattooing skill you can give Sims pre-made, custom, or dedication tattoos. As you level up your skill you’ll unlock more stamps and stencils, and increase the odds of excellent results.” The expansion launched March 6, 2025 for PC, Mac and consoles.
Two things did come to everyone in the free base game update of February 25, 2025, per the patch notes: Create a Sim tattoos gained Hue, Saturation, Opacity and Brightness sliders, “just like the ones for makeup”, and the tattoo catalog gained filters by body location. The Gallery also got a Tattoos category, but the note is clear that only owners of Businesses and Hobbies “will be able to create, share, and use tattoos with multiple layers and custom art”.
The object you need is the tattoo chair in the pack’s Build Mode catalog. Search the catalog for “tattoo” rather than hunting through categories. If money is the problem, our guide to making money fast covers the honest routes.
How to Level Up
The skill behaves like the game’s other major skills: practice and real jobs both earn progress, and the more your Sim does, the faster it climbs. In order of what to do:
- Practice on the chair. Click the tattoo chair and pick the practice option. The April 29, 2025 patch notes reference the “Practice Tattooing” interaction and confirm that Sims can practice on a partner, not only alone; the same note stopped practicing customers from “swapping practice partners back and forth”.
- Tattoo a willing Sim. Ask another Sim to sit in the chair and choose a pre-made design, a custom one, or a dedication tattoo (a design tied to a relationship). Early on expect the occasional poor result: the developer’s wording is that leveling “increases the odds of excellent results”, so a low-level Sim can botch a piece.
- Take or give classes. Businesses and Hobbies adds Classes and Mentorship as a feature, so a higher-skilled Sim can mentor yours. The base game’s February 2025 update also expanded which skills can be mentored directly from their objects.
- Cheat if you only want the ink. Our skill cheats guide explains the stats.set_skill_level command; player guides give the internal name for this skill, which we have not been able to confirm against an official source, so test it in a spare save first.
For general speed tricks that stack with all of this (moodlets, the Savant trait, the right lot traits), see how to max skills quickly.
Tattoo Paint Mode and Layering
The creative half of the skill lives in Create a Sim. Tattoo Paint Mode lets you draw your own design freehand rather than picking from the catalog; the developer describes it as celebrating “freedom of expression”. Layering lets you stack several tattoos on the same spot, and the stamps and stencils you unlock by leveling are what you build those layers from. Finished custom tattoos can be uploaded to the Gallery’s Tattoos category and downloaded into other saves.
Two current-build notes. The September 22, 2026 update (PC 1.128.90.1030) fixed a bug where married couples were reverted to partners after entering Create a Sim through “Custom Tattoo planning”, which tells you that planning a custom tattoo takes you into CAS mid-game. And the June 30, 2026 update fixed a console soft lock when downloading tattoos from the Gallery, so PlayStation and Xbox players can now use shared designs safely. Console players also got proper controller scrolling and filter panels for tattoos in the March 6, 2025 hotfix.
Getting Paid for It
Tattooing is one of the services the pack expects you to sell. The expansion’s own description says you can “earn Simoleons” for wearable art, and the Small Business system lets you run the parlor out of your home or a purchased Small Business Venue lot, hire employees and “decide how to charge”. The Ticket Kiosk charges customers by entry or by time; a tattoo parlor more naturally charges per service, and the April 2025 fix that stopped employees being valid “Practice Tattooing” targets shows customers and staff are treated separately in that system.
Our full walkthrough of starting a business in Businesses and Hobbies covers the lot purchase, the customer rules and the employee side. For a tattoo parlor, keep the chair in the business area you designate, and remember that a burglar can hit Small Business venues too, so a Burglar Alarm is worth placing (see our Robin Banks guide).
The 2025 version of this guide told you to “take tattooing classes at a local school” and “use social media and advertisements”: neither exists in that form. Classes are the pack’s own Classes and Mentorship feature, and marketing is handled by the Small Business system, not a social media menu. More Sims guides live on our Sims hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I tattoo Sims without Businesses and Hobbies? You can apply catalog tattoos in Create a Sim in the base game, and since February 2025 you can tint them with sliders, but the Tattooing skill, the chair, Tattoo Paint Mode and layered custom tattoos all need the expansion.
How many levels does the Tattooing skill have? It levels like the game’s other major skills. We have not found an official statement of the level count, so check the Skills panel in your own game.
What is a dedication tattoo? One of the three tattoo types the developer lists, alongside pre-made and custom. Dedication tattoos are tied to another Sim, the equivalent of inking a name.
Can tattoos fail? Yes. The developer says leveling “increases the odds of excellent results”, which means low-level work can come out badly. Practice before charging.
Can I share my custom tattoos? Yes, through the Gallery’s Tattoos category, added in the February 2025 base game update. Downloading them on console was buggy until the June 30, 2026 fix.