\begin{tikzpicture} \begin{umlstate}[name=state]{I am a state} \begin{umlstate}[name=substate1]{I am a substate 1} \end{umlstate} \begin{umlstate}[x=3, y=-3, name=substate2]{I am a substate 2} \end{umlstate} \end{umlstate} \end{tikzpicture}