Name: Alyssa
Zodiac: Aries
Favorites: Lilac, Pancakes, Indie
Traits: Bookworm, Cat Person, Computer Whiz, Night Owl, Shy, Pizza Appreciator (hidden trait)
Lifetime Wish: Living in the Lap of Luxury

PSA: I get bored very easily, so my updates will be pretty random and there might be gaps in my families' timelines where I didn't take any pictures.

THIS TUTORIAL IS OUT OF DATE, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEWEST VERSION OF MY TATTOO TUTORIAL

First of all, there are some things you’ll need:

• ColorMagic
• s4pe
• a photo editing program with basic knowledge of how to use it (I’m using Photoshop in this tutorial)
• body texture images (male and female)
• the image you want to make a tattoo, I’ll be using this cherry blossom branch

1. Open ColorMagic and hit next. On the screen where it asks for the CASDemoFullBuild file, you can locate it in the folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo\Data\Client

2. Use the filters and find the tattoo you want to recolor or replace. I always try it as a recolor first, which might make your game crash, in which case you’ll have to either make it a replacement or try recoloring a different tattoo. To make it a replacement, just click the “default replacement” box underneath the search box. Hit next.

protip: Don’t try to recolor the stars tattoo like I did, because it made my game crash. Either make it a default replacement or try recoloring a different tattoo. So far I’ve been able to recolor the pink butterflies, the chest tattoo, and the dolphin ankle tattoo. Keep in mind that the game only allows one recolor of each tattoo.

3. At this point you can choose a name for your file and ignore everything else. The color code is only for hair, and I’ve tried to choose a different color swatch and it hasn’t made a difference in-game. Hit finish and save the .package file.

4. Now go to s4pe and open the .package file you just saved.

5. Find the UNKN file that shows the image of the tattoo, then right click it and choose “export to DDS”

6. Save the .dds file as whatever you want. DO NOT close s4pe yet.

7. Open the .dds file you just saved using a photo editing program, I use Photoshop. You’ll need an extension that allows you to open .dds files. If a dialogue box like the one below pops up, make sure you choose “load using default sizes” and hit ok.

8. You’ll see the design of the EA tattoo on the image, but you don’t want that, so color the whole background black. Make sure it’s pure black.

9. Open one of the body textures (male or female depending on what tattoo you’re making) and drag it onto your .dds file. It should be a perfect fit. You can see that I now have two layers, the background layer which is all black and the body texture layer.

10. Paste the tattoo design you want onto a new layer, and resize/place it where ever you want it to be on the body. Keep in mind that the underwear on the image is just for show, on your actual sim the tattoo won’t show over their clothing or anything like that.

11. Hide the body texture layer so that all you see is the black background and your tattoo design.

12. Make sure your tattoo design layer is selected and click the “lock transparent pixels” button (the first one next to the word lock, it looks like a grid of squares).

13. Use a big brush to color your design white.

14. Hit ctrl+a to select the entire image, then go to edit > copy merged.

15. Hit ctrl+z a couple times to undo until your design isn’t white anymore (your screen should go back to the way it looked in step 11)

16. Go to the channels tab, click the layer Alpha 1, and hit ctrl+v to paste your black and white image. You can see below that it still shows the stars that originally made up the tattoo I’m recoloring, but after I paste I will see the white imprint of my own tattoo instead.

17. Click back onto the RGB layer, and then go back to the layers tab.

18. Click file > save as and make sure you save it as a .dds file. Choose DTX5 (interpolated alpha) and hit save.

19. Also save your file as a .psd so that if you have to edit the tattoo at all (resize, reposition, etc) you won’t have to start over from the beginning.

20. Now go back into s4pe which you never closed, so the tattoo file should still be open. Right click the same UNKN file, but instead choose “import from DDS”.

21. Choose your new .dds file that you just saved. It’ll cross out the UNKN file and look like there was an error, but there wasn’t.

22. Now save your file as whatever you want, and it’ll automatically be in the .package format. When it’s done saving, the crossed out UNKN file will be gone and you’ll be able to see the image of your own tattoo instead.

23. Put that .package file in the mods folder, which is located at: C:\Users\[YOURNAME]\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo\Mods

Now you’re done! Open the CAS Demo to test your new tattoo. If your game crashes, you’ll have to go back to step 1 and choose a different file to use. But don’t worry! If that does happen, you already have your tattoo template saved, so you won’t have to do this all over. You’ll just have to repeat steps 1-4, then skip down to step 20.

For the tattoo I made, it originally crashed my game. I retried a couple times and ended up just making it a default replacement of the magenta stars. I also repositioned it and made the colors darker, so here’s what it ended up looking like on the body mesh:

And here’s how it looks in-game:

As a thank-you for reading my tutorial, the tattoo I made is available for download right here. Please don’t claim as your own or reupload, and like or reblog this post if it helped you!

Thank you so much for reading, and let me know if you have any questions! :)