diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 746d34066a2..fdbcf3f5bf5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 ## main / unreleased
 
+* [BUGFIX] Include statusMessage intrinsic attribute in tag search. [#3084](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/3084) (@rcrowe)
+
 ## v2.3.0-rc.0 / 2023-10-20
 
 * [CHANGE] Update Go to 1.21 [#2486](https://github.com/grafana/tempo/pull/2829) (@zalegrala)
diff --git a/modules/ingester/instance_search_test.go b/modules/ingester/instance_search_test.go
index e6cc36642cd..508faf9a00e 100644
--- a/modules/ingester/instance_search_test.go
+++ b/modules/ingester/instance_search_test.go
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ func TestInstanceSearchTagsSpecialCases(t *testing.T) {
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	require.Equal(
 		t,
-		[]string{"duration", "kind", "name", "status", "traceDuration", "rootServiceName", "rootName"},
+		[]string{"duration", "kind", "name", "status", "statusMessage", "traceDuration", "rootServiceName", "rootName"},
 		resp.TagNames,
 	)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/search/util.go b/pkg/search/util.go
index 7672da8c5ab..03e77dd4001 100644
--- a/pkg/search/util.go
+++ b/pkg/search/util.go
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ func GetVirtualIntrinsicValues() []string {
 		traceql.IntrinsicKind.String(),
 		traceql.IntrinsicName.String(),
 		traceql.IntrinsicStatus.String(),
+		traceql.IntrinsicStatusMessage.String(),
 		traceql.IntrinsicTraceDuration.String(),
 		traceql.IntrinsicTraceRootService.String(),
 		traceql.IntrinsicTraceRootSpan.String(),