/3/ - 3DCG

I rotated my arm bones' pole-angle to get the elbows to bend the right way in their IK Constraint, but when I parent the armature and mesh after doing this it twists the fuck out of the geometry. The only way I can get the shit to fall properly is to rotate the pole angle back.

Is there something I should be doing differently when attaching the armature to the mesh, or is there a way I can rotate the direction a joint flexes without rotating the pole-angle?