Adult and mainstream actress, accomplished director, and owner of the groundbreaking punk-porn site, BurningAngel.com,
Joanna Angel has more than paved the way for high level exposure and acceptance for tattooed and modified adult performers. Growing up in Northern New Jersey, Joanna grounded her social life in the New Jersey hardcore and punk scene,
and attended tattoo conventions in the area.
“Going to conventions was great for me. At that time, back in like 1998-1999, tattoo conventions were all just tattoo
artists. This was before the time when tattoo conventions had tons of clothing and what not. There were way less girls
there; the culture was different,” Joanna recalls
Joanna got her first tattoo at 19, a mask on her right shoulder that says “so it goes” done in Philadelphia at Body
Graphix. From then, Joanna has collected a treasured variety of work representing the timeline of her life from a
number of different artists - Chris Garver, Rob Benevidos at Flying Panther, Jack Mauk from Port City Tattoo, and
Corey Miller from LA Ink.
While in her senior year studying English Literature and Cinema Studies at Rutgers University, Joanna decided to start an adult site with her roommate, Mitch Fontaine in the punk community tradition of starting something one hundred percent independent and individually owned. The idea was to create a porn site and
company with their own idea of what is sexy. Thus, Burning Angel, established in 2002 was born. “The
company name came from looking for a dichotomy of a good girl/bad girl thing… I think at one point, a
tattooed girl came with a very abrasive stigma, and now a girl can be soft and pretty in the traditional
sense, and have tattoos,” Joanna says. “There are many ways to make it in the adult industry. There
isn’t just one path, and this is an industry where you can really carve your path,” she continues.
The site continues to be wildly successful. Joanna has won the Adult Video News (AVN) Award for
best sex comedy three times and her personal site has won Best Porn Website four times in a row.
Burning Angel has not only been successful in showcasing the beauty in alternative performers, they stand out by not taking themselves too seriously while still being professional and
well-crafted.
Stay tuned for Joanna’s next upcoming movie coming out soon: Making the Band and see
her feature dancing at Pure Gold in Cary, North Carolina July 10th.
For Burning Angel and Joanna Angel information and updates, visit:
www.BurningAngel.com/en
www.JoannaAngel.com/en
Instagram: @JoannaAngel
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