On the left is a drawing I made in 1999 of my "secondary fursona" as a Mormon Missionary. Because I was. (Somehow I felt that my main dragon-self wouldn't be a missionary. This may have been my subconscious foreshadowing things to come...)
On the right is a tattoo I got in 2021 of the same fursona/character in her current form, as an avenging paladin of a pagan fire-god from a fantasy setting I've dabbled in for years but never managed to finish anything. It's all too personal and too incoherent to make a good story, really. Maybe someday I'll corral it, though, there's a lot of good stuff in there. Struggle and trauma always provide strong story roots.
The LDS church, of course, teaches that getting a tattoo is desecrating the sacred temple of your body, but I figure if the Salt Lake Temple can have big wall murals, I can have some art on my temple walls too. :D (Also, I'm not Mormon anymore, so I don't have to care what they teach!)
I've changed a LOT since that first drawing, but really, the seeds of who I am now were there in all those old mission photos and doodles and interactions. I'm just glad I was able to let go when it became clear that the person I used to be wasn't welcome in the current church as her honest self, and that let me finally bloom into the person I am now.
P.S. The tattoo design is by Tomatobird, who also has a complicated relationship with religion, and who is a WONDERFUL person and a fantastic artist! Her comic "Behold!" is one of my favorite bits of religious art ever.
