Diary of a Confused Dragonkin

#aaahhh prev would you mind telling me how your ear pointing and fangs went??? #I've been wanting those for a while but I'm scared of getting them 😓

(Making a new post so I don't hijack the other persons post!)

Both of these were actually the easiest mods I've had done!

Fangs

Mine are composite, which is the same material used for fillings. It's molded onto your tooth and cured with UV. Unlike veneers and crowns, they are technically removable, and thus a little bit weaker and more prone to chipping (this risk increases based on length and point.)

Finding someone to do it may be the most difficult part. I have not heard much success from people cold calling cosmetic dentists. Personally, I used to regularly see a dentist twice a year, so I ambushed him after a regular cleaning.

I emphasized that I wanted to avoid damaging my teeth, get them done by a professional, and have them be potentially removable if I ever changed my mind. (Since body modding is still stigmatized, emphasizing these things shows them that you're actually taking potential concerns into consideration. Drs n dentists love that shit)

It was not covered by insurance since it was cosmetic but I paid under $400 for both, however I have seen others say they got theirs done for much more. Mine have chipped once or so and it was quick and easy to fix.

It was completely painless and maybe took 20mins tops.

Ear Pointing

I can only recommend Samppa von Cyborg to perform this as he developed the procedure and hasn't taught anyone else, so copycats may not have the proper technique or aftercare advice to prevent necrosis. Ear tips are very thin and it's imperative to get blood flow to return after any kind of mod done on them. Unfortunately Sammpa currently only operates out of Poland and won't be coming back to the US until Trump is gone.

Expensive, with a virtually painless but very long healing period.

This was a two-day procedure, one day for each ear. I think it took 3-4hrs per ear iirc. Essentially, they cut the helix, shape the ear, and sew it back together. Shape is determined by your anatomy and the artist has little control over it. Smaller ears may be unable to get it done, but Samppa has been able to work with many. It should also be noted that they will likely not be 100% symmetrical, just due to the fact that human bodies aren't truly symmetrical.

Cartilage does not heal back together so you will have permanent sutures inside the ear forever---they're invisible, but important to be aware of because you cannot get any piercings along it.

You cannot lay on them or bend them for the first year. Donut pillows for ear piercings are often used in this time (I still use mine actually, but my ears have always been sensitive when I lay on them.) You'll need to adjust how you wear glasses for at least the first month (i think the first year entirely, but I don't wear glasses so I'm not sure.) Motorcycle helmets and the like will also need to be adjusted and over-the-ear headphones should be avoided.

The first few days, my ears were kind of uncomfortable, but I wouldn't say it was painful at all. Overall, 100% the least painful and easiest heavy body mod to heal. You just feel super paranoid about accidentally bumping them for a while lol (THAT hurts)

Combat sports should be avoided in the first year, and anything that could cause cauliflower ear should be avoided entirely forever. They aren't extraordinarily fragile, but this is not a mod for someone living a Mick Foley lifestyle lol

Oh, also to note, they can only shape your ear as it is, they can't make it longer or put an extra implant in to make it longer. Ears have very little skin to work with and it's very thin, so that's currently out of the realm of possibility.

Many places will tell you to focus on gear and clothes and playing games where you are your kintype, but those have never done much for me. What has always helped me is figuring out what parts of my body, skillset, and life style I can change to better match my kintype. If my kintype is a powerful runner that navigates the forest with ease and eats a mixture of fish and wild berries, then that gives me a list of dysphoria alleviating goals that looks like:

- start jogging or practicing on a treadmill to get better at running and feel fit in a way that matches my animal counterpart

- spend more time in the woods getting comfortable with uneven terrain and familiarizing myself with the patch of woods I am visiting

- start eating more fish, or maybe even learn how to fish, and learn about berries that can be foraged in my area

The schedule for Othercon 2026 is now available! While it is currently considered complete, some time slots may change as presenters make adjustments ahead of the con: https://othercon.zohobackstage.com/Othercon2026#/agenda

By default the timezone may be in UTC -05:00 (America/New York). On desktop/large screens this can be changed near the top of the schedule, right above where the days are selected. On mobile/small screens it can be changed by opening the side menu (the 3 bars in the top-left corner).

Aaaaannnd... The Queue!

It is now possible to enter the join queue for the con from our website here: https://othercon.org/

>And that's a big if it's shown too_

>It's not dissimilar to a therian needing to know their species exists before they can identify it_

>I have an identity that's neither fiction nor fact and if one day something similar to it comes to this world I might call it that new thing instead_

>No matter what, being negative towards those whose kintypes align purely with current pop media is ridiculous_

>In five years that thing won't be as popular but that fictionkin will still persist_

>Believing it won't is to believe that the fictionkin experience is flimsy and less legitimate than other nonhumanity_

As someone who is fully and completely nonhuman on every level, you have to care about alterhumans who are still human to some extent.

And attributing the things terrible people have done to innate flaws of humanity itself is to absolve them of responsibility. It is not "human nature," it's not anything about humanity whatsoever, it's choices those people made that hurt the world.

Plus self identified "misanthropic alterhumans" have a tendency to ignore their own role in perpetuating systemic biases. You think because you're not a human you're above humanity, that you can't possibly be a bigoted shithead. News flash: misanthropy is bigotry.

Stop using your trauma as an excuse to be bigoted.

I know what’s like to feel the pain and frustration of seeing humans hurt your kind, both as a human and a nonhuman myself. To reiterate: when are you going to stop and think about the SYSTEMIC issues tied to that pain instead of taking the easy way out by blaming and hating an entire species for existing?

I am Black. I have my own track record of trauma involving white humans. I spent all my whole life in the Southeast U.S. where this is no shortage of white republicans, itching to peddle their racist rhetoric. I was made a target of racism by a white human boy in the first grade. Yet, I’m also aware that it had nothing to do with his species. It has everything to do with the privileges many white people have been allotted in my country and the constructs they’ve either been taught or have adopted into their world view against marginalized communities like mine. I recognize that they alone aren’t the only arbiters of racism, let alone antiblack racism. Racism is systemic.

Day in and day out, I’m sick at the thought of human farmers and agriculturalists poisoning my species (vultures) because they deem us as “pests” when we have just as much of a right to live as they do. Not to mention these poisonings have led to many of my kind’s endangerment and potential extinction. Yet, I also know that there’s plenty of human conservationists busting their asses to save us, reverse the damage that has been done against our populations and educate rural communities on the ecological effects of these poisonings. Abuses against wildlife is systemic.

And before I’m hit with the “These problems wouldn’t exist in this first place if it weren’t for humans!” card, remember that the root of your frustration are societal infrastructures, not the existence of a species. Nobody is exempt of bigotry, not even the most marginalized person you can think of. It’s called having bias, and that bias can always be weaponized against someone or isolate you from the world around you. Some of you KNOWINGLY exude privilege over some demographics of humans while feigning your “right” to be misanthropic. Humans are still your peers— your communities— at the end of the day. We all share this fucking planet, and it’s going to take anything but hate to heal it.

It’s already frustrating that so many nonhumans treat alterhumanity as synonymous with nonhumanity and center that experience over others when addressing the community collectively. I have no tolerance for nonhumans who expect to be given a slap on the wrist for their behavior because whatever history they have, meanwhile alterhumans like myself and fully human alterhumans as well are expected to quietly accept LET ALONE SYMPATHIZE with this behavior. If not that, we’re forgotten completely, so folks act as if their behavior affects no one.

Your trauma holds weight. I get that.

At the same time:

I exist. We exist. You don’t get a pass to be misanthropic in alterhuman spaces simply because you are nonhuman, in community with a lot of nonhumans and/or have a bad history with humans.

Humans exist in this community too, and even if they didn’t, it’s not acceptable to dismiss an entire species as ontologically evil or harmful.

This has worried me, and kept me from entering fictionkin/alterhuman spaces because I know how fandom treated me when I simply said he was my favorite character before I knew the depth of our bond. I worry that, because my kintype is so horrific in source, I should just keep it to myself and not offend others in the community, but it hurts me to think I have to bury this inside forever.

Is the community here on tumblr a safe space for people like me? After stalking it for a while I think I’ll be okay here, but I wanted to ask someone who has been a part of it longer then me.

You are all loved, valid, and perfect just the way you are! Thanks for your time!

Hey there,

First, don't worry about your source or kin. Being a fictionkin is unvoluntary and you cannot control who you are (this is, in most cases, if we don't count fictionlink/otherlink in this scenario). And you don't need to "fit in" in this community.

The alterhuman community won't judge you from who you are (If some random does, they're an asshole then). I've seen fictionkins of characters with problematic sources like TCOOAL, Changed or even YBC. And I don't really know your source or who you identify as, but I don't think people should attack you for something you cannot control. Please, don't worry about it, I can tell you that fictionkins with problematic sources are not uncommon in the community.

In cases about communities...No idea, but I have searched some communities on Tumblr that might accept those!

Fictionkin (Creatures, beings, etc.) -> (you have to send a request to join). It's the most popular rn.

Alterhuman sillies -> They are anti-fakeclaiming, anti-harassment and welcome all kinds of sources, so I'll say that it's also safe.

Sooo remember!

As long as you don't support the source and the actions in there...Nothing is wrong!

Being expected to never go on the internet, never have actual opinions, never EXIST in front of anyone that isn't extremely close to the system.

Being banned/excluded from spaces, whether it be without exceptions or with rules requiring littles to have older headmates co-fronting with them.

Being criticized for doing "adult things" like you're unable to comprehend the risks they have.

Having your feelings for someone be ignored and pushed aside purely because you're a little.

People automatically baby talking to you once they know you're a little.

Being condemned and/or stopped from fronting by the system because of a minor mistake that they would've ignored for anyone else.

Being expected and pushed into being really naive and childish.

I understand not wanting syskids to be around swearing, but maybe let the system decide! Some may not care! Some may be able to mentally filter it out so it doesn't actually get processed by the syskid!

Our young ones get really frustrated that so few servers allow them to talk in the main channels. Some have a locked channel or thread that all littles/syskids are supposed to stay in, built specifically for just systems. But those channels/threads don't often get used, so when our littles/syskids want to talk to someone, there often isn't anyone else on who has access to that channel. Not all of them can mask their age, either, so not all of them can just pretend to be older and talk in the rest of the server.

Those who have a different orientation. Those who are disabled when their source isn't or vice versa. Those who are a different race or even species. Those who are a different gender, are intersex, are cis, or are trans in noncanon ways. Those who have different moral alignments. Those who barely are canon at all. Those who were in relationships that fandom considers a "bad ship". Those who hate and avoid being like their canon selves while the fandom can't seem to get enough.

Therian = someone who identifies as an animal (sometimes you'll see this defined as earthen animals only, but this is historically not necessarily part of the label - if it's animalistic, it qualifies)

Otherkin = someone who identifies as nonhuman (be that animal, plant, sapient nonhuman people, object, concept, etc.)

Connotatively (ie, in terms of associations and cultural nuances), there are some cultural distinctions as well. The therian and otherkin communities actually arose completely independently, and only later started interacting so closely that in many ways they've nearly merged.

The otherkin community originates from a few separate groups of elves, namely the Silver Elves and the Elf Queen's Daughters, both of whom originate somewhere in the 1970s (exact dates often difficult to pin down) and which then led to the Elfinkind Digest, a mailing list originally intended for elves but which quickly expanded to other nonhuman beings, within which the term otherkind (which would rapidly become otherkin, as far as I can tell due to typographical errors that accidentally got preserved in the lexicon) was coined to avoid the inconvenience of having to write elfin-/dragon-/orc-/hobbit-/etc-kind constantly within the Digest. The influence of these groups and communities has meant the otherkin community has always had heavy influence from New Age and neo-pagan philosophies, and has always leaned toward spiritual explanations - though certainly never exclusively.

The therian community, on the other hand, originates from a messaging board called alt.horror.werewolves, often abbreviated to AHWW within the therian community these days, in the early 1990s. While this messaging board was originally a fansite for werewolves, at a certain point people started turning up who felt themselves to be (were)wolves under the skin, and gradually that kind of discussion took over much of the board. (Not just wolves, either - some of the earliest weres I remember seeing in logs include a bat and, of course, the now-famous werePontiac.) If you've ever seen animal-people, particularly older ones, calling themselves weres instead of/in addition to therians, this is why - that was the original word we used for the concept. Culturally speaking, the therian community has always been very focused on the concept of shifts because of these origins - it is, if I'm not mistaken, where the otherkin community adopted that terminology from. The therian community also tends to be more focused on the animality of being non-human - which is why these days that's usually used as the primary distinction between otherkinity and therianthropy.

So. Lately we've been realising how much of our experience could have been related to alterhumanity. For now we'll focus specifically on all the different aspects of non-human things we experienced.

As a child, we were kind of always full of Urges™. So many that we honestly assumed it was nothing important, because they all felt so disjointed and random. Phantom feelings of a tail, or fur, strange feelings about our height, and posture. A desire to turn into a wolf and run far far into the woods, through the fields. The need to ground against pur hooves as an elk. Constant yearning to just run and run and run, and later an even more unbearable yearning to fly.

When we started to have dreams about flying, we just thought everyone must have those. We were always a human in those dreams even if it felt really awkward in those dreams. And surely everyone felt a deep seated envy for birds and felt it unfair they can fly and humans cannot?

I suppose it's only recently we realised it might be alterhumanity that we're experiencing. And that maybe us being plural is why it never made "sense" that we're non human before. That feeling literal aspects of an animal, or a plant, or evern an object could be perhaps unusual.

It just kind of sucks when you're already unusual in many other ways, and also suffer from derealization, so those different aspects just merge into one blob of "nobody cares about anything in me so it must not be anything important or even distinct, everyone feels that". When you yourself just don't feel real.

we wish for a plural future.

and not in the way of wanting more people to have a dissociative disorder, but in the way of plurality being more accepted and known about.

and not just traumagenic plurality; all types of plurality.

everyone deserves a safe place to be themselves, which includes plurals of all kinds, no matter the origin.

@tanix-dragon​, @levitating-lesbo​, and @ all the anons who’ve been involved in this nonsense: this is all y’all’s fault

For the record, Generic Farmer Man isn’t meant to be anything resembling a hypothetical appearance of the “smallfolk”; he’s just a Generic Vaguely Fantasy Farmer Man.

Page 1: Rani the dragon saying to themself “Rani can have a little livestock, as a treat.”

Page 2: A humanoid farmer with pointed ears and a serpentine tail is happily exclaiming, “Wow, this year’s been great! I haven’t lost a single animal!”

Page 3: Back to Rani, they are now smirking and say, “I’m about to end this man’s whole career.”

Page 4: We see Rani dive bomb one of the farmer’s cattle in the distance as the farmer watches. The livestock is letting out distressed mooing.

I bite

I crawl

I swim

I fall

My humanly body yearns for the mountains to shroud my self hatred, but all I see are buildings, taller than the clouds.

I go to return to a place I once called my home, only to find splinters of what's left, as my forests get cut down so does my skin, for every tree a new mark appears, the earth is my vessel and my vessel is dying.

I want to return to the cold clear oceans forevermore, but warmth welcomes me instead of the cold, grime and dirt is what has become of my home.

I look to stars only to see blackout, the air is polluted it isn't the skies my friends once soared with their wings.

I look to poles hoping to find refuge there, only to see that flowers have been able to show, the ice is melting like a ticking time bomb but so is their lives.

I look to the once stary sky as the smoke closes in, fire surrounds me and the earth.

Our first published pieces are live! thank you @just-a-walking-leaf for trusting us with your work 🍃

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Inky Paws #4

Inky Paws is a nonhuman anthology zine for original fiction writings by nonhumans and alterhumans about nonhumanity, alterhumanity, and similar, related themes. This zine is primarily literature focused, but will also be open to more illustrative methods of story-telling such as comics. The zine’s focus is on fictional pieces that are centered around nonhumanity, alterhumanity, therianthropy, and similar (see Submission Guidelines section for more details).

You are welcome to submit:

Short stories

Microfiction

Satire

Poetry

Song lyrics

Experimental fiction (fake newspapers, fake recipes, fake blogs, fake posters, etc.)

Mixed media

Comics

Minizine pages

And more! If you're unsure, just ask! Seriously, please just ask. I promise I would 10000% love to hear about your idea even if you're unsure about submitting it, there is no such thing as a bad idea and I cannot stress this enough.

How to participate:

You can submit your pieces in this Google Form!

OR

Email invisibleotherkin(@)gmail(.)com with your submission, and please title the email "Inky Paws Zine #4 Submission". With your submission, please include:

The piece's title or name,

A name or pen name to attribute the piece to,

Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece,

Any social media handle or personal website you’d like to be published alongside your name with the piece (optional), and

Any relevant author notes or author biographical information (optional).

Anonymous pieces are also welcome.

Once submissions have been collected and the deadline has passed, these submissions will be put into the zine and it will be posted online as a free PDF. Submissions are due by November 30th, 2026.

Please see the Submission Guidelines, and Submission FAQ, below cut.

With the increase in interest in radio collars and bird bands, I would like to bring to light one creator who makes such a thing that are wearable for nonhuman identifying people. : Bird Brain Leatherwork. Additionally, the business is independent and queer owned, run by a single artist and leatherworker. Her items are handmade, and by their appearance, look sturdy and well made.

These items are made with the BDSM/kink, petplay, furry, and therian communities in mind. She makes a variety of leather items such as collars and cuffs (as well as other items such as patches and LARP gear), but the following are items which specifically fit the topic of radio collars and bird bands.

Tracker Wild Critter Collar A collar designed to give the appearance of a wildlife monitoring collar. Customizable and able to include species and ID numbers. Also includes a pocket for a GPS tracker, so your handler or researcher can keep track of you.

The Bird Band Wild Critter Cuff Reminiscent of wildlife birdbands used for ecological research and monitoring. (Or bands used on "domesticated"/pet bird species as well.) Much like the Tracker collar, the Bird Band cuff also includes a pocket for a GPS tracker.

The Falconer Wild Bird Anklets These cuffs are meant to resemble the anklets placed on falconry birds, with a large eyelet for proper jess (or other rope) connections.

Ear Tag Wild Critter Tag An ear tag like those used in ecological research or ranch identification, able to be customized with your own words and symbols. Also includes a pocket for a GPS tracker, and different mounting options for small ears or fursuits. (There are other creators who have made similar Ear Tag style gear using lighter materials that may be easier to wear, if wearing the tag in the physical ear is important to the individual.)