This combo works for bare torsos in regular skin tones and fantasy skin tones, so it's good for revealing avatars. Most tattoos, scars, freckles, ab shading etc. will layer on top of the mod, but you may have to equip and re-equip some poses to get things to display.
These mods are a little less flexible imo. What skin tones are available depends on the specific item, and they often come with a fixed arm mod. Experimentation may allow you to replace the existing arms with different ones (see left avatar using Beat The Heat + Accel Arms).
Ab shading
etc.
These handy dandy item poses can be used with pretty much any skin tone you like, but they may not be very convincing on their own. I suggest layering with open coats/jackets or pauldrons; look for straight vertical lines and bulk in the shoulders.
Torso Layering + Arm Mods + Binding + Specific Items
Torso layering obscures the torso. In this case, it is the big fluffy fur cowl I used to disguise the curve of the female base's permaboobs. As an added bonus, the fur makes the torso seem somewhat bulkier around the shoulder-area. (There is also a pair of pauldrons layered under that and a bunch of other items.)
Arm mods, especially those with the far arm raised, arms crossed, etc. can obscure the curvature of the torso.
None || Bull King || Supplicant Prince
Binding is done using or . What this does is remove a vertical line of pixels off the protruding part of most shirts to give the avatar a flatter chest. It is very, very subtle. This also does not change the shading of the pose or anything else.
Finally, not all items are made equal. Some items are just pixeled to look more masculine than others, no matter which base you have on. There's no real guide for this, unfortunately; trial and error will be your best friend.
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Here's an old thing I wrote some time ago (a few years ago now lmao) but I think still has some useful info and item examples c: