Chaiya and Sunan are a concept I came up with when I started learning Thai, especially reading and writing. I thought having Two Thai characters might help, so I came up with two Best friends who live and work in Thailand.
Chaiya is a Tiger, an animal Thailand is extremely famous for and also a holy animal in many ways, on top of that, my favorite animal of all time. And extremely endangered.
His best friend is an animal I was just very fascinated with at the time, A Tarsier named Sunan.
I wanted Chaiya to be a buddhist by belief, as that is the main religion in Thailand while Sunan isn't the most believing person, he considers himself Agnostic but takes part in certain traditions. The two both did not have the greatest start in life. Sunan being an Artist who can't seem to get his foot in the door, and Chaiya actually being an Orphan who grew up to be a very angry, very violent person and did go to Prison committing heavy physical assault. While in Prison he learned to Tattoo, although prison symbols are not very creative, so it didn't turn him into an artist. Regardless of learning this skill, Prison was scary, and he quickly understood that, he didn't want to be like this, like the people he was in with. He didn't want to be a monster. He needed to change.
So when he was released, he turned to buddhism, a faith he had abandoned before, and practiced it vigorously and applied its' morals to his life. He wanted to do better, so even when he had trouble finding work due to him being a former convict he refused to go back to his old ways. Eventually, he meets Sunan the starving artist...A Tarsier, very talented in illustration, and Chaiya, a not very creative Tiger but with the skill to Tattoo people. They had the idea to open a business together, starting in Sunan's apartment until they had enough money to open their own parlor. Becoming almost Celebrity status tattoo artists.
Going onto Covers of Tattoo magazines and making good money while their friendship blossomed.
A Story of redemption, A story of change a story of how you can turn your life around.
Funfact: On the Tattoo magazine Cover I attempted to make, There are a few articles advertised on it that mention Characters that belong to a good friend of mine. I thought it was a nice easter Egg due to her also making Anthro Character Art.
