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El pecho está siendo tatuado por el tatuador.

El pecho está siendo tatuado por el tatuador.
The chest is being tattooed by the tattoo artist.
From Lesson 398:Progressive passive voice (estar siendo + participle)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El pecho está siendo tatuado por el tatuador.

What exactly is happening with the verbs in está siendo tatuado?
This is the progressive passive voice. It combines the continuous form está siendo (is being) with the past participle tatuado (tattooed). You use this when you want to emphasize that an action is in the middle of happening to the subject right now.
Does tatuado change depending on what is being tattooed?
Yes! In passive constructions, the past participle acts like an adjective and must match the subject in gender and number. Because el pecho is masculine singular, it is tatuado. If the subject were la espalda (the back), it would be está siendo tatuada.
Would a native speaker actually use this sentence in casual conversation?
They might, but the passive voice is generally less common in spoken Spanish than in English. In everyday speech, it is often more natural to use the active voice, like El tatuador está tatuando el pecho. However, this está siendo structure is essential when you specifically need to keep the focus on the thing receiving the action.
Why is it por el tatuador and not de or para?
When using the passive voice, the person or thing performing the action (the agent) is always introduced by por. Using para would change the meaning to 'for the tattoo artist,' and de is not used to indicate the actor in a passive sentence.

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