Back in the mid-2000s, The Sims-iverse introduced tattoo stations via its edgy, outcast cousin, The Urbz for the first time. Since then, tattooed Sims have made a recurrent appearance throughout the franchise, appearing in both The Sims 3: Ambitions and The Sims 4’s base game.
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The Sims 4: Businesses & Hobbies – How To Inherit, Sell Or Transfer A Business
We show you how to pass on, transfer or sell your business to another Sim and preserve your hard work.
Despite tattoos being available in The Sims 4 since the jump, they could only be added through Create-A-Sim, the in-game character creation menu. That is, until the release of The Sims 4: Businesses & Hobbies, which has gone as far as adding a tattooing skill, tattoo parlours, and all the equipment you need to get one going.
How To Open A Tattoo Parlour
For your business to be successful, you’ll need to have a venue and register your small business. Your venue can either be in your home or on a lot you’ve bought especially for this purpose.
Some lot types can’t be registered as small businesses. To make sure you can register your business successfully, try and use a residential, community, or small business venue lot.
How To Register Your Tattoo Parlour
You can either register your new business automatically when buying a property to host it on, or you can register it using a phone or computer. When you register it, you’re going to need to select certain Business Activities, too.
If you decide to buy a new lot for your tattoo parlour, when you purchase your new property, you can toggle a box underneath where you decide if the lot should be furnished or not. This will automatically make a generic business that you can then customise.
Once you’ve bought your property and gone back into Live Mode, you can customise your tattoo parlour by navigating to the Owned Businesses tab. You can find this near your Sim’s needs and personality information.
Sims who are planning on running a home business, or if you forget to tick the box while buying the new lot, will need to register their business manually for 750 Simoleons. You can do this by selecting a phone or computer and using the Register Small Business interaction.
Registering a small business will bring up a menu that allows you to name and customise your business. You can choose the exact Business Activities that will be carried out, along with a new logo and your target clientele.
How To Customise Your Business To Make A Tattoo Parlour
You’ll want to customise your business to include certain activities and clients to make sure it runs well as a tattoo parlour. Two specific business activities will be useful:
- Get Tattooed
- Practice Tattooing
Get Tattooed means that Sims will come along to get new ink, while Practice Tattooing means that tattoo artists will essentially hire space in your shop to tattoo Sims from. You can choose either one or both, but it’s best to make sure you add Get Tattooed.
You can set up to five Business Activities in vanilla gameplay, so you might want to choose some others as well to help your parlour run as smoothly as possible. Some ideas include:
- Be Friendly
- Listen To Music
- Drink Tea
Another aspect of business customisation that can be useful for shaping your tattoo parlour is the Target Customers function. This lets you decide who your main customers should be, either by setting a preference for certain types of Sims or making mandatory rules.
The Age parameter is especially useful when making a tattoo parlour, as you can make the lot a child-free zone. Given that only Teens, Young Adults, Adults, and Elders can get tattoos, there’s no real need for any tots to show up on their own.
Customising your business is also nice for storytelling purposes. For example, you might want to make it so that Adventurous or Creative Sims are more likely to come along to get inked.
Items Needed For A Tattoo Parlour
There are a couple of different ways you can approach your tattoo parlour, but there’s no avoiding that you’ll need to buy a tattoo table. Some other items you might want include business signs, ticket kiosks, and drawing tablets.
The Deluxe Tattoo Table by Inktastic came with Businesses & Hobbies and costs 920 Simoleons. You can find it in the Creativity section of Activities & Skills in Buy Mode, or you can search for it specifically.
You don’t need to buy tattoo guns, needles, or ink to get your Sim set up. Maybe the tables are some kind of all-in-one deal. However, you can find some cute new tattoo clutter in the Decorations section.
If you want to charge Sims for entry or for each hour they spend at your tattoo shop, then you’ll need to buy one of the two new ticket kiosks. You should also make sure that you have the right facilities for Sims to take care of their needs, like bathrooms and kitchenettes.
Another item you might want to consider buying is the Digitalistic Sketchpad for 750 Simoleons. You can also find it in the Creativity section or under Misc Electronics. This allows your Sim to design tattoos.
The Digitalistic Sketchpad is a base game item, so you’ll have this. But, if you have The Artist Studio’s Kit, you’ll also have the option of choosing The CreativePro Tablet for 800 Simoleons instead.
How To Make Money Tattooing
You have a couple of different ways of approaching your new small business. You can either wait for your customers to pay for a service – in this case, tattooing – or you can charge your customers for spending time at your parlour.
If you want your Sims to pay per tattoo, all you’ll need is the tattoo table, and you’ll receive a flat fee for each tattoo completed depending on the artist’s skill. The higher the artist’s tattoo skill, the more they’ll earn for each tattoo.
How To Use Ticket Kiosks
To use the ticket kiosk method instead, you need to buy either the Ingenious Ingvar Ticket or Electrono Ticket Kiosk from Buy Mode. With one of them placed in your business, you’ll be able to go back to the Customise Business menu and add entry prices.
The ticket kiosks can be used to add an admission fee or charge Sims by the hour for hanging out at your business. When customising your business, look out for the option to set Entrance Fees. Rather than setting a specific amount of Simoleons, you’ll choose from a scale of -50% up to 100% for both one-time and hourly fees.
The lowest you can charge per hour is two Simoleons, while the highest is 10 Simoleons/Hour. Entry fees, on the other hand, start at 11 Simoleons and run up to 46 Simoleons on the upper end of the spectrum. Sims can still spend money to use some items once they’ve bought a ticket, but it’ll cost them less.
You can also use other items to earn extra cash around your small business. The arcade machine will consistently take in a little extra pocket Simoleons, or you could set up a food stall for them to eat from. Just make sure you hire a vendor or make a staff member responsible for tending it.
How To Hire Tattoo Artists
Unless your Sim is planning on being the only artist in their studio, you’ll want to consider hiring a few extra employees to help out. Or, if you’d prefer, you can hire Sims to help out with other parts of the business, like keeping it clean.
Open the Owned Business menu again and go to the Manage Employees menu. Select it. You’ll see three slots, which you can click to see a list of potential employees. Some of their top skills will be listed here, under your Sim’s relationship with them.
Select the Sims to hire them. When you open the business next, they’ll come around to do their shift. To decide what they should do at work, go back to the Owned Businesses panel and select Manage Employee Tasks.
A new menu will open where you decide which tasks your employees should take on around the shop. Make sure you pick Tend Tattoo Table for any employees you want to make your tattoo artists. You might also want to pick some other tasks, too, like Clean.
Make sure you have enough tattoo tables, too. You’ll need one per artist.
Another way of hiring tattoo artists is by selecting any tattoo tables you have around your business and using the Hire Tattoo Artist interaction. This costs 50 Simoleons, and you’ll earn money each time a customer gets tattooed there.
Using this method works a little more like hiring a freelancer, as they aren’t consistent employees that you have on your rota. You also won’t get to choose which artist you hire here. However, it makes sure that you get someone with the right skill set.
