You could swap an attachment image if you can't show your actual image.
FWIW, it wasn't my intention to nitpick. I want to help but can't be sure about what is happening. If I have to guess then you're likely to get answers that aren't helpful.
For example, instead of "I linked a bone to an image" it might be "I bound bones to a mesh attachment" (I assume it was multiple bones). "Unlinking" probably means "removed all the weights", but I can't be sure. I'm not sure what "locking the images" means, maybe "locking the bone weights" but if you removed all the weights there'd be none left to lock. "link everything back" is maybe that you bound bones to the mesh again. The mesh getting wonky doesn't say a lot about what is actually happening, nor when it happens. Does the mesh change when weighted? When the bound bones are transformed?
You probably won't be able to nail the terminology like we can and that's fine, but the more we can use the same terminology, the more likely we are to understand correctly. Some screenshots probably would go a long way to explaining what is happening.
I still contend that attachment compensation should be all you need. You shouldn't need to unbind bones from your mesh.
