What a week! It’s been a busy month around here, and it shows no sign of slowing down, but I’m still keeping up with the daily drawing challenge. Here is this week’s roundup of badass goddesses…
Day 11. Tlazolteotl, Aztec Purifier of Sins
Her name comes from tlazolli (meaning “filth” or “vice”) and teotl (meaning “deity”), so yes literally the Filth Goddess. But Tlazolteotl isn’t just about sin; she represents the full cycle: indulgence, confession, and redemption.
She tempts humans into their vices (lust, greed, gluttony… the classics) and then, when they’re ready, offers forgiveness and spiritual absolution. In many artistic depictions, she’s literally covered in filth from devouring and excreting the sins of humanity.
Tlazolteotl is also linked to childbirth and midwifery, which is quite literally a visceral metaphor for creation emerging from chaos and the bloody miracle of life.
Her association with lust and sexual transgression brings with it the diseases of forbidden unions, but also the means of healing the body and purifying the soul.
About the Art
This ended up being one of my favorite drawings this month so far. She’s definitely going in my 2026 calendar (on sale in November)!
Day 12. Chamunda, Hindu War Goddess
A fierce Hindu war goddess and a form of the divine mother, whose name comes from the two demons she killed. In her bloody origin story, Chamunda emerged from the third eye of the goddess Durga to defeat the demon generals Chanda and Munda.
Her iconography is anything but subtle. If you thought Kali was the ultimate Hindu badass goddess, Chamunda is next level. Her look is pure maximalist horror show, with a skeletal grin, multiple blade-wielding arms, a garland of skulls, and a belt made of severed limbs.
But despite her terrifying appearance, she’s not just about wanton destruction. She represents the power to destroy negativity, and purify the world of evil forces. After all, she was summoned in response to the murderous rampage of two demons.
Death is not an ending, just a station in the great cycle, and Chamunda is the white-hot fire that wipes the slate clean. She’s the blinding flash of blades and blood that precedes the cosmic reset, so that transformation and regeneration can begin.
About the Art
I have a sketch book for all my Pinktober drawings and each page has the name of the goddess written at the top, so each day I turn the page and start researching her mythology, and looking for ideas and reference images.
Last Saturday, I had just finished performing in the first night of Dreadful Delights, and was preparing for the second show. My mother was also visiting for the weekend, so we’d stayed up late celebrating.
I turned the page and typed “Chamunda, Hindu goddess” into the browser and thought, oh fuck, really?
But that’s why we call it a drawing challenge.
Day 13. Skadi, Norse Winter Huntress
Skadi is a Norse goddess and jötunn (giantess) associated with bowhunting, skiing, and the winter mountains. When the gods killed her father, Thjazi, Skadi didn’t just mourn, she strapped on her weapons and marched to Asgard to demand justice.
The gods offered her a husband as compensation, and gave her the pick of all the gods. The catch? She had to choose based only on their feet. The god with the most beautiful feet turned out to be Njord, the sea god (probably a Pisces!), but their marriage was doomed from the start.
She hated the damp seaside home he preferred, and he couldn’t stand the frozen halls of her mountain keep. They parted ways, and she went back to her life as a mountain jötunn, skiing and hunting in peaceful solitude, the embodiment of independence and autonomy.
Day 14. Angrboda, Norse Mother of Monsters
Angrboda is another jötunn, from the cold Ironwood forest, whose name means “the bringer of grief.” Some of you may be familiar with her family from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She is the consort of Loki, the infamous trickster god, and they had three monstrous children together: Fenrir, the wolf destined to devour Odin (king of the gods), Jörmungandr, the world-serpent fated to drown the earth, and Hel, who rules the underworld with impeccable goth flair.
But Angrboda isn’t evil. She’s just on the wrong side of prophecy. The gods saw her offspring as cosmic threats, destined to bring about Ragnarök, the end of the world. So they tore her family apart, banishing and imprisoning her children to protect the world order, and their place as its rulers.
Angrboda is the ultimate embittered mother of misunderstood misfits, an ancient analogue to Morticia Addams or Smurf from Animal Kingdom. Not the nurturing, kiss it better kind of mom, but the one you secretly root for to take down the sanctimonious helicopter parents at the PTA, or the Asgardian patriarchy.
Day 15. Ixchel, Mayan Goddess of Moon and Medicine
Ixchel is the Mayan goddess of the moon, medicine, and midwifery, with just a touch of divine chaos thrown into the mix. Her name means “Lady Rainbow,” ix = female, and chel = rainbow.
She embodies the many phases of the changing moon—illuminating the night, waxing and waning with the female monthly cycle, and occasionally summoning tidal waves.
Ixchel is deeply connected to feminine power. Her temples were pilgrimage sites for women seeking blessings for fertility, childbirth, and healing. In her youthful form, she’s a weaver and healer, associated with creativity, procreation, and the rhythms of life.
In her ancient form, she appears as an old woman with serpents in her hair, pouring out water from her clay jar—sometimes to nourish the earth, sometimes to wipe it clean.
She is the rainbow-wrapped tempest: lover, mother, healer, and destroyer. As complex as the moon she symbolizes and the women she champions, her power lies in her contradictions, bringing life and taking it away, creating beauty and wiping the slate clean in the blink of an eye.
About the Art
This is yet another drawing inspired by the lovely snake charmer Tristan Risk.
Day 16. Erzulie Dantor, Haitian Vodou Spirit
Erzulie Dantor is the Haitian Vodou spirit of motherhood, passion, and righteous rage. She’s a fierce protector of women, children, and anyone who’s had to fight for survival in a society that makes their lives a constant struggle.
She is part of the lwa pantheon of spirits who act as intermediaries between humans and the divine. She’s often contrasted with Erzulie Freda, a softer aspect of the feminine, whereas she is the opposite: strong, scarred, and silent.
In Haitian history, Erzulie Dantor is said to have inspired the enslaved women who joined the Haitian Revolution. She’s the spark of defiance that says enough is enough; it’s time to burn down the old order and remake the world so we can be free. Her courage and fury are the very heart of righteous rebellion.
She is also a symbol of maternal ferocity, like Ripley from Aliens; the mother who will comfort and soothe, but won’t hesitate to cut a bitch to defend her offspring. She’s often depicted with an infant in one arm and a dagger in the other. Love and vengeance aren’t opposites, they’re flip sides of the same coin.
Pray to Erzulie Dantor for strength in your darkest moment, and don’t be surprised if she hands you a blade and commands, “Get up. We’ll fight together.”
About the Art
The inspiration for this drawing was my lovely friend Khadija.
Day 17. Nuwa, Chinese Creator Goddess
Nuwa is the Chinese creator goddess, credited with crafting the first humans out of yellow clay. At first, she took great care to mold them with expert precision, then later, she created the masses by flinging clay droplets with a reed rope. Those carefully sculpted humans became the nobility, while the rest became the peasant classes.
In another myth, when the four pillars of the heavens collapsed, the earth cracked open, and chaos reigned as the world was inundated with fire, floods, and monsters. Nuwa melted down five colored stones to patch the hole in the sky, and used the legs of a giant turtle to prop up the heavens, protecting the earth and its inhabitants.
Nuwa is considered a mother goddess, and the patroness of love and marriage, but she’s clearly not the soft, romantic type. Her brand of love and protection is all about rolling up her sleeves and doing the hard work with her own hands.
Beyond her divine acts of creation and reconstruction, Nuwa is a teacher, gifting her human progeny with lessons about love, procreation and survival. The ultimate hard working single mom, she leads by example.
Best of all, for some reason, she has the torso of a woman and the lower body of a serpent or dragon, because why not?
Inktober/Pinktober continues
That wraps up week three! Make sure to follow me on Instagram, where I’m posting new drawings every day at MsPinkDotNet. If you’re taking up the challenge, please tag me. I’d love to see your work. See you next week!
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