Hmm... what's this Athletic Woman character? I don't think I've heard of her?

It's a heavily-muscled and toned full-body morph for Posette, by REMC of Third Eye Function. Unfortunately, his site appears to be down.

any suggestions on how to set up a patchy pattern, like a snow leopard's "spots and stripes" tail?

Use the grouping tool to assign new material groups. That's how I created the lengthwise stripes.