And Just So You Guys Know, It Was @purplebehittindifferent Who Decided She Wanted To Celebrate My Milestone.

And just so you guys know, it was @purplebehittindifferent who decided she wanted to celebrate my milestone. She's been very helpful with my mental health the short years I've known her. One of my favorite people🖤🖤🖤

In life, I believe we are all just addicts struggling with our drug of choice.

For some, it may be actual drugs. Meth, cocaine, heroine, marijuana... whatever suits them. For others it is alcohol or cigarettes or other tobacco products.

It may be pornography. Or self harm.

I have wrestled with my drug of choice for about four years. Indulging daily or weekly. I'm accustomed to counting wins by the day.

...

Tomorrow, I'm going out with some friends to celebrate two months clean. Eventually I may relapse back into my old habits, but that's not the point. The point is proving to myself that I am able. Recovery is possible.

I WILL NOT BE A SLAVE TO MY DRUG.

And I'll encourage you to adopt the same mantra. These addictions and this society that fuels them? It can't hold us. We are free.

Gonna be honest, my current crust/battle jacket is much the same as what you just described. Not in design; my jacket has a much more streamlined and put together look than most others I've seen. But it's absolutely an atrocious band mishmash, no doubt about it, and I designed it that way. Since I have a place in my heart for each subculture, I wanted my jacket to reflect that. My goal making that crust item wasn't to make something as punk or metal as possible, it was to make something authentic to myself.

Your battle jacket is an art piece and reflection of yourself in addition to a statement. It's a shred of identity. Thus, I have a rapper on the bottom hem of my rocker jacket. He saved my life years ago. He's part of my history. Is he punk? No. Is there a piece of me in his symbol? Absolutely. Also on the jacket is the band that introduced me to metal and the band that introduced me to rock in general. Right alongside an emo artist group that has helped me fight my addiction. I wanted my jacket to be more than a political conversation piece. I wanted it to tell my story.

However messy and embarrassing, I'm sure your old jacket tells a great story. And I'm also sure your wip is gonna turn out amazing!

Can we talk more about the transitional phase between normie and alternative? Because we all did some corny shiz back then. Very poser behavior. And I think we all need to talk about it. Cleanse our souls.

I feel like the "I call myself emo but I don't even understand what that means" starter pack is a tattoo choker, a pair of black plain cross earrings and a band tee for a wildly popular rock band that isn't even really emo like AC/DC or Misfits or something. Or that Nirvana t-shirt, you know the one I'm talking about. If I see that shirt one more time, I'm gonna puke.

It's like you looked around Walmart for anything at all black so you could fit in with the edgy kids at school. It's like those "emo transformation" TikToks but... but this isn't a game to you, this is normal Tuesday behavior. Who is three or four years deep into alt culture and still wearing this outfit? Cuz I wore this outfit when I was probably thirteen... for about a year... never again. Also had a leather jacket that you could not peel off my body. I ran that thing into the ground.

Don't even get me started on how we all labeled everything "emo" that clearly was not- especially music. Who was gonna tell us emo was not a synonym for edgy and sad?

Anyways, I ended up donating those cross earrings to a nearby blossoming baby bat and burned the tattoo chokers a LOOONG time ago. They no longer have power over me. I'm a free woman.

Got any funny baby bat/puppy punk/poser days stories or thoughts? I need this.

This reminds me... there was one time I met @purplebehittindifferent at a rock convention to hang out. I was wearing one of my spiked vests, obviously, because rock convention. Purple legit CRAWLS OUT HER CAR WINDOW to come see me AND ONCE SHE GETS TO ME stops dead in her tracks with a look of such sadness and disappointment. She was like "I-I can't hug you! You're pokey!"

I opened up my jacket so she wouldn't get spiked and she got SO excited and threw her arms around me. I still think about that sometimes, cutest thing🤣

Get you guys some lovely normie friends to complain about how pokey you are.

💜How am I supposed to hug her if she’s so spiky❤️

New spider friend joining soon!

(Ash belongs to @artofkhaos404 !)

My Spiderverse masterpost

Do not waste your time thinking the thoughts of others. Think your own thoughts.

Do not spend time trying to please everyone and be liked by everyone. Spend time learning how to like and please yourself.

Never forget that there is a Holy Spirit inside of you, and it will irritate the demons in some of those around you. Count this as a blessing.

Do they like you? Do they dislike you? Have you aggravated their demons? Don't spend time dwelling on these things. Spend time getting to know the Lord and improving yourself. Learning how to walk in Jesus' footsteps in an individual, unique way. The way He created you to walk. The people worth being around will recognize that fire in you. They will stay. They will stand by you.

I mean, to speak from personal experience... when I tried to be cool and walk the line everyone told me was my own? When I denied my true nature to try and morph into someone else? I was completely alone. Angry. Masking constantly. Exhausted.

But once I began to understand, and more importantly, ACCEPT myself? When I stopped trying to adjust for those around me? When I started actually reading the Word and trying to live it and spending time getting to know myself? People started coming around. I wasn't so lonely anymore.

God carefully selected each and every trait you have. He is a perfect, good Father and He made you just as you should be. Embrace it.

A lot of well meaning thin people just don't see it because they're not looking for it. So it's our job to point it out.

Literally being skinny and becoming more educated in fat liberation is like opening your third eye and you cant go back. Like you start noticing shit you never did before.

Go into the character design tag and look at how many characters are skinny and compare them to how many characters are fat. Go watch several movies see if the fat character is rich or is food obsessed or if theyre the tank or dumb or the comic relief etc. Im not even looking for these it just became blatantly obvious at some point and theyre everywhere

Haven't been particularly proud of my art in a while but THIS ONE I am happy with. New obsessions bring it out of you, I guess.