Punk and Pretty is a brand and online store. It is also a movement created for alternative people and non-alternative people in the beauty community to come together and break the misconceptions of society. It is for people of all genders or genderless. No matter the age. All are welcome.
Hi, Welcome to Punk and Pretty. I'm Jojo Colón, known on the internet as Jojolovesneon. I am a 22 year old female, currently still a college student, model and most importantly tattoo artist. After maaaaaaaaany years complaining about wanting to do my own products with my own designs and not knowing how and none of my professors or colleagues being able to answer, I finally figured it out on my own. Thus, punkandprettystore.com was born.
As I mentioned I've wanted to do this for years. You see, I am a graphic design and animation student. As a designer and a knick knack, stationary lover. Plus being a model and having a, excuse the cliché, passion for fashion, you can imagine my frustration going into stores and seeing not very creative mugs, canvases, t-shirts, you name it, products being sold. And most importantly MOST OF THEM NOT BEING TARGETED AT THE ALTERNATIVE, GOTH, PUNK SUBCULTURES. Like come oooon, most of us can only go to those types of stores on halloween. Spooky Season is the best season of the year, but it is also the only time we can get cool stuff for us in these specific stores. Not anymore.
Me wanting to do these products, I went ahead and took a screen printing class in college as an elective and a sublimation class outside of college. I started studying different print techniques. During that trimester I came up with the name Punk and Pretty. The original concept was for the store to be very divided between black and pink. The typical "I have two moods" thing. But for my final project on screen printing class, we had to make a print that used all 4 CMYK colors. I am a neon lover. Glow in the dark, bright, 3D, I love all of this. Before this class I used to make some projects for college representing my love for neon, by using 3D type typography.
Class project 2017 using a friend’s music artist name
I love making those “ah it hurts my eyes” designs. Once the professor gave us this assignment, I created my CMYK designs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxN6EwMB8Ok/?igshid=109sfnqtykxie
After those first trials, I improved them and started incorporating my style on tattoos. After almost 6 years tattooing, I’m finally starting to tattoo things that represent me a bit more.
Once I finally found a way to make Punk and Pretty a reality, I decided to not seperate my two worlds anymore. No pink and black. Rough and sweet bs. I managed to combine my two sides with my love for neon. Punk and Pretty is a perfect balance between rough and sweet, not too punk, not too prep. How? Well by using my CMYK designs and making the theme neon punk, cyber punk, retro wave or whatever you wanna call it. It’s a neutral ground for everyone. I wanted to be able to appeal to my tattoo audience and my beauty audience. While also breaking barriers between them and shedding light on the fact that alternative people are not bad, scary or anything. We are just bold.
I also didn’t want people to think this brand is only for women. Punk and Pretty is for males, females, non-binary, anyone. It is a place for all genders, all sizes and all labels. Everyone is welcome. Doesn’t matter if you’re “too punk” or “too soft”. Nah, we don’t believe in that here. I encourage you to be yourself and not do harm. Live your life, man.
With that said that’s why the Punk and Pretty logo includes CMYK colors. A symbol of all parties coming together. The rose is a symbol of beauty, yes. But roses also have thorns. It’s the perfect symbol for both worlds coming together.
As you can probably tell, I put a lot of thought and heart on this brand. I truly hope it is able to serve as a voice to encourage people to be themselves and most importantly unify each other.