diff --git a/Documentation/Extending/ViewHelpers.rst b/Documentation/Extending/ViewHelpers.rst
index e5f5fbeef..75d8ada37 100644
--- a/Documentation/Extending/ViewHelpers.rst
+++ b/Documentation/Extending/ViewHelpers.rst
@@ -89,6 +89,17 @@ ViewHelpers might be ones that implement `strip_tags`, `nl2br` or other
 string-manipulating PHP functions). And data ViewHelpers may return any type,
 but must be used a bit more carefully.
 
+Tag-based ViewHelpers can now also return the :php:`TagBuilder` instance
+directly instead of rendering it to a string immediately. This is a special
+case compared to arbitrary string-compatible objects: :php:`TagBuilder`
+implements :php:`UnsafeHTML`, so Fluid treats the returned value as HTML output
+that must not be escaped again.
+
+This keeps the structured tag object reusable after the ViewHelper itself has
+finished rendering. For example, an image ViewHelper can return its
+:php:`TagBuilder`, and another layer can still add or remove an attribute afterwards
+before the final output is converted to a string.
+
 In other words: be careful what data types your ViewHelper returns.
 Non-string-compatible values may cause problems if you use the ViewHelper in
 ways that were not intended. Like in PHP, data types must either match or be
diff --git a/src/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelper.php b/src/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelper.php
index dccf6ee0f..fa489d3da 100644
--- a/src/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelper.php
+++ b/src/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelper.php
@@ -127,8 +127,8 @@ public function validateAdditionalArguments(array $arguments): void
         // Skip validation of additional arguments since we want to pass all arguments to the tag
     }
 
-    public function render(): string
+    public function render(): string|TagBuilder
     {
-        return $this->tag->render();
+        return $this->tag;
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilder.php b/src/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilder.php
index 7fed3c26f..63722c4c1 100644
--- a/src/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilder.php
+++ b/src/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilder.php
@@ -9,12 +9,14 @@
 
 namespace TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper;
 
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\Parser\UnsafeHTML;
+
 /**
  * Tag builder. Can be easily accessed in AbstractTagBasedViewHelper
  *
  * @api
  */
-class TagBuilder
+class TagBuilder implements UnsafeHTML
 {
     /**
      * Name of the Tag to be rendered
@@ -298,4 +300,9 @@ public function render(): string
         }
         return $output;
     }
+
+    public function __toString(): string
+    {
+        return $this->render();
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilderChainingTest.php b/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilderChainingTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3a8e2ff39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/TagBuilderChainingTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+/*
+ * This file belongs to the package "TYPO3 Fluid".
+ * See LICENSE.txt that was shipped with this package.
+ */
+
+namespace TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Tests\Functional\Core\ViewHelper;
+
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\DataProvider;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\Test;
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Tests\Functional\AbstractFunctionalTestCase;
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\View\TemplateView;
+
+final class TagBuilderChainingTest extends AbstractFunctionalTestCase
+{
+    public static function chainedTagBuilderCanBeMutatedDataProvider(): array
+    {
+        return [
+            'tag syntax' => [
+                '<test:tagMutation attributeValue="{second}"><test:tagBasedTest data="{first: \'one\'}">content</test:tagBasedTest></test:tagMutation>',
+                ['second' => 'two'],
+                '<div data-first="one" data-second="two">content</div>',
+            ],
+            'inline syntax' => [
+                '{test:tagBasedTest(data: {first: \'one\'}) -> test:tagMutation(attributeValue: second)}',
+                ['second' => 'two'],
+                '<div data-first="one" data-second="two" />',
+            ],
+        ];
+    }
+
+    #[DataProvider('chainedTagBuilderCanBeMutatedDataProvider')]
+    #[Test]
+    public function chainedTagBuilderCanBeMutated(string $source, array $variables, string $expected): void
+    {
+        $view = new TemplateView();
+        $view->assignMultiple($variables);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->setCache(self::$cache);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->getTemplatePaths()->setTemplateSource($source);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->getViewHelperResolver()->addNamespace('test', 'TYPO3Fluid\\Fluid\\Tests\\Functional\\Fixtures\\ViewHelpers');
+        self::assertSame($expected, $view->render(), 'uncached');
+
+        $view = new TemplateView();
+        $view->assignMultiple($variables);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->setCache(self::$cache);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->getTemplatePaths()->setTemplateSource($source);
+        $view->getRenderingContext()->getViewHelperResolver()->addNamespace('test', 'TYPO3Fluid\\Fluid\\Tests\\Functional\\Fixtures\\ViewHelpers');
+        self::assertSame($expected, $view->render(), 'cached');
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/ViewHelperEscapingTest.php b/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/ViewHelperEscapingTest.php
index d8705c644..ec39d084d 100644
--- a/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/ViewHelperEscapingTest.php
+++ b/tests/Functional/Core/ViewHelper/ViewHelperEscapingTest.php
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ private function renderCode(ViewHelperInterface $mutableViewHelper, string $flui
         $view = new TemplateView($context);
         $view->getRenderingContext()->getTemplatePaths()->setTemplateSource($fluidCode);
 
-        return $view->render();
+        return (string)$view->render();
     }
 
     /*
diff --git a/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagBasedTestViewHelper.php b/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagBasedTestViewHelper.php
index d29602189..b9f923ecf 100644
--- a/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagBasedTestViewHelper.php
+++ b/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagBasedTestViewHelper.php
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 namespace TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Tests\Functional\Fixtures\ViewHelpers;
 
 use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper\AbstractTagBasedViewHelper;
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper\TagBuilder;
 
 final class TagBasedTestViewHelper extends AbstractTagBasedViewHelper
 {
@@ -20,10 +21,10 @@ public function initializeArguments(): void
         $this->registerArgument('registeredBooleanArgument', 'boolean', 'boolean argument', false, false);
     }
 
-    public function render(): string
+    public function render(): TagBuilder
     {
         $this->tag->addAttribute('registeredBooleanArgument', $this->arguments['registeredBooleanArgument']);
         $this->tag->setContent($this->renderChildren());
-        return $this->tag->render();
+        return $this->tag;
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagMutationViewHelper.php b/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagMutationViewHelper.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ae6a2550e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Functional/Fixtures/ViewHelpers/TagMutationViewHelper.php
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+/*
+ * This file belongs to the package "TYPO3 Fluid".
+ * See LICENSE.txt that was shipped with this package.
+ */
+
+namespace TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Tests\Functional\Fixtures\ViewHelpers;
+
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper\AbstractViewHelper;
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper\InvalidArgumentValueException;
+use TYPO3Fluid\Fluid\Core\ViewHelper\TagBuilder;
+
+final class TagMutationViewHelper extends AbstractViewHelper
+{
+    public function initializeArguments(): void
+    {
+        $this->registerArgument('value', 'mixed', 'Tag to mutate');
+        $this->registerArgument('attributeValue', 'string', 'Value of the added data-second attribute', true);
+    }
+
+    public function getContentArgumentName(): string
+    {
+        return 'value';
+    }
+
+    public function render(): TagBuilder
+    {
+        $tag = $this->renderChildren();
+        if (!$tag instanceof TagBuilder) {
+            throw new InvalidArgumentValueException('TagMutationViewHelper expects a TagBuilder as input.', 1745483101);
+        }
+        $tag->addAttribute('data-second', $this->arguments['attributeValue']);
+        return $tag;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTest.php b/tests/Unit/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTest.php
index e04dfa6e1..5f4ddbc47 100644
--- a/tests/Unit/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTest.php
+++ b/tests/Unit/Core/ViewHelper/AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTest.php
@@ -20,9 +20,8 @@ final class AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTest extends TestCase
     public function renderCallsRenderOnTagBuilder(): void
     {
         $tagBuilder = $this->createMock(TagBuilder::class);
-        $tagBuilder->expects(self::once())->method('render')->willReturn('foobar');
         $subject = new AbstractTagBasedViewHelperTestFixture();
         $subject->setTagBuilder($tagBuilder);
-        self::assertEquals('foobar', $subject->render());
+        self::assertEquals($tagBuilder, $subject->render());
     }
 }