diff --git a/INSTALL.adoc b/INSTALL.adoc
index ab132652c..3c3d56ea8 100644
--- a/INSTALL.adoc
+++ b/INSTALL.adoc
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ can be one of the following flags:
  - `NO_BUILTIN_TIGRC`: Reduce the size of the binary by not including a
    built-in tigrc. The built-in tigrc is used as a fallback when no
    `tigrc` is found in the system configuration directory (e.g. `/etc`).
+ - `TIG_USER_CONFIG`: Allow to customize the `tigrc` path (default `~/.tigrc`).
 
 The following example `config.make` manually configures Tig to use the ncurses
 library with wide character support and include the proper ncurses header file
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 3f9eda6d2..bd89d0945 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ endif
 
 override CPPFLAGS += '-DTIG_VERSION="$(VERSION)"'
 override CPPFLAGS += '-DSYSCONFDIR="$(sysconfdir)"'
+ifdef TIG_USER_CONFIG
+override CPPFLAGS += '-DTIG_USER_CONFIG="$(TIG_USER_CONFIG)"'
+endif
 
 ASCIIDOC ?= asciidoc
 ASCIIDOC_FLAGS = -aversion=$(VERSION) -asysconfdir=$(sysconfdir) -f doc/asciidoc.conf
diff --git a/NEWS.adoc b/NEWS.adoc
index 10d064ed8..7109c0c4d 100644
--- a/NEWS.adoc
+++ b/NEWS.adoc
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ Improvements:
  - Add sample git-flow keybinding (GH #421)
  - Add chocolate theme (GH #432)
  - Show stash diffs. (GH #328)
+ - Make user tigrc location configurable. (GH #479)
 
 Bug fixes:
 
diff --git a/include/tig/options.h b/include/tig/options.h
index 737489a02..70e3f3812 100644
--- a/include/tig/options.h
+++ b/include/tig/options.h
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@ struct ref_format;
 struct view_column;
 typedef struct view_column *view_settings;
 
+#ifndef TIG_USER_CONFIG
+#define TIG_USER_CONFIG "~/.tigrc"
+#endif
+
 #define OPTION_INFO(_) \
 	_(blame_options,		const char **,		VIEW_BLAME_LIKE) \
 	_(blame_view,			view_settings,		VIEW_NO_FLAGS) \
diff --git a/src/options.c b/src/options.c
index 150fcf875..33b27c192 100644
--- a/src/options.c
+++ b/src/options.c
@@ -947,7 +947,7 @@ load_options(void)
 	}
 
 	if (!tigrc_user)
-		tigrc_user = "~/.tigrc";
+		tigrc_user = TIG_USER_CONFIG;
 	load_option_file(tigrc_user);
 
 	if (!diff_opts_from_args && tig_diff_opts && *tig_diff_opts) {