  Quantum control of atomic systems is largely enabled by the rich structure of
selection rules in the spectra of most real atoms. Their macroscopic
superconducting counterparts have been lacking this feature, being limited to a
single transition type with a large dipole. Here we report a superconducting
artificial atom with tunable transition dipoles, designed such that its
forbidden (qubit) transition can dispersively interact with microwave photons
due to the virtual excitations of allowed transitions. Owing to this effect, we
have demonstrated an in-situ tuning of qubit's energy decay lifetime by over
two orders of magnitude, exceeding a value of $2~\textrm{ms}$, while keeping
the transition frequency fixed around $3.5~\textrm{GHz}$
