"Tattoo" was built to the Admiralty design of the S class destroyer, which was designed and built as part of the British emergency war programme. The destroyer had a displacement of 1,075 tons, a length overall of , and a beam of . The propulsion machinery consisted of three Yarrow boilers feeding Brown-Curtis turbines, which supplied to the ship's two propeller shafts. Although designed with a maximum speed of , "Tattoo" was only able to achieve on power trials. The destroyer's economical speed of gave her a range of . The ship's company was made up of 6 officers and 93 sailors.