Doing It My Way

photos by archival grams

Today’s porn industry is nothing like it used to be. Gone are the days when young women were exploited the minute they stepped off the bus in Los Angeles. Now the women are in charge. Chantal Danielle is a reigning queen of this new generation. Instead of entering the industry at the ground floor, she built a significant following on Is My Girl and OnlyFans well before shooting her first professional scene.

Of course, this whole new world might not even exist if it weren’t for Joanna Angel, especially for alternative performers. It’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when there was barely a tattoo in the industry. With the founding of the Burning Angel website, Angel played a significant role in bringing alt-porn to the mainstream.

Surprisingly, the two tattooed beauties had never crossed paths before, so we knew we had to change that. We brought Chantal and Joanna together and listened in as they discussed the way OnlyFans has empowered women in the industry, the sorts of roles open for heavily tattooed women and much more.

Joanna: It’s really good to meet you, and this will be exciting because in this interview I will get to know you like the rest of the world knows you!

Chantal: Yay!

Joanna: Why don’t you tell me how you got started doing porn?

Chantal: I actually started with Inked Girls and then Is My Girl. That was my first adult website, I guess. It’s basically like OnlyFans for tattooed girls. I started doing that, and then I started an OnlyFans in October 2020. I have always wanted to do porn, it’s always been in the back of my mind. I have wanted to do it since high school. I don’t know why, but I was like, “I wanna be in porn.” I’m friends with Evan Seinfeld who was a porn star himself, and he’s managed different girls. So I came to him and was like, “I think I want to do porn.” He said, “Well, you really need to think about it. Make sure that’s something you want to do.” At first we were just going to do girl/girl. But then I was like, “Well, I actually really enjoy guys better.” I love my girls, obviously. I love filming with girls, but I like to film with guys too. So he’s like, OK, well, I’m gonna get you in contact with Motley Models. I talked to Dave Brock who owns Motley Models and he brought me on the team and now I am part of Motley. I had a contract with MindGeek and I shot with Brazzers to start. So that’s basically why I am here now.

Joanna: Wow. So you started off shooting with the biggest porn company. A lot of people have to work for a year or more before they get to that. How did that feel, doing your first professional scene with the biggest studio?

Chantal: I was super excited. It’s so funny—a few years ago someone was like, will you ever do mainstream? And I was like, if Brazzers picks me up, and I did, like, a tag in questions or whatever. I didn’t expect to shoot with them at all or to be signed with them. It’s just kind of crazy that it all worked out. I guess I manifested it.

Joanna: That’s awesome. Did they get back to you when you said it on Instagram?

Chantal: No. They had tons of people tagging them.

Joanna: When you were just doing self-produced amateur stuff, were you doing boy/girl, girl/girl or just solo stuff?

Chantal: When I started out I was a personal trainer and I didn’t even have that many followers, I had, like, 2,000 followers on Instagram. I didn’t post any sexy pictures of myself on Instagram or anywhere. I didn’t have a Twitter, none of that. So when I started, I started doing sexy pictures, teasers, like, I had a pay-per-view video that was just me showing my boobs, whatever. Now you can find that all over the internet [laughs]. I did that, and then it basically built up. I started making videos with my ex-boyfriend and we started filming with blowjob videos and sex videos. And they were pretty short, too. So that’s how it started.

Joanna: How did it feel the first time you shot a blowjob video and you watched yourself do it? Were you into it? Did you love it?

Chantal: I absolutely loved it. I have a thing with people watching me, that’s probably why I love doing porn.

Joanna: Do you remember the very first person who paid for it on OnlyFans? Or did you just put it on the wall?

Chantal: It was a pay-per-view on Is My Girl. I remember I sold so many of them because obviously that was, like, the first thing on the internet. I didn’t even send nudes to boyfriends or anything like that. Nobody has a picture of me anywhere from the past. So everyone was going crazy, especially the people I used to work with and everyone I knew from the gym.

Joanna: You were a personal trainer, and, I mean, I used to have a personal trainer and if he had an OnlyFans, I would’ve totally paid for it. Did you have clients who wound up signing up for your OnlyFans?

Chantal: Oh yeah. I still get them, and people from high school, people I used to work with, clients. They’re like, “I remember you from the gym,” and I’m like, “I don’t remember who you are [laughs].”

Joanna: Yeah, exactly. Obviously if we knew each other you’d have my phone number and you wouldn’t be messaging me on here, you know?

Chantal: I get that all the time. I also get the guys who were like, oh, I remember you from the gym, can I get your number? Listen, this is a business to me and I’m here to make money. If I wanted to date I’d be on Tinder.

Joanna: Having started filming in your bedroom, what was it like when you went to your first professional porn set? Was there anything that particularly surprised you?

Chantal: Honestly, I can say that I haven’t been disappointed yet on any of my sets or anything like that, but I did find it crazy that a lot of things are staged. I thought it would be a whole fluid shoot, but you do your sex stills and then you do this and then there’s the cum shot, and you gotta, like, fake some of ’em and it’s kind of crazy. When you watch it, you don’t really expect that. I don’t want to ruin porn for anybody, but it’s definitely a lot different [laughs]. It’s very professional too. It’s a whole set, a whole production goes into it.

Joanna: Being a heavily tattooed girl, are you typically cast in the same kind of role? I’m guessing you’re not playing the innocent one…

Chantal: I’m definitely cast as the home wrecker. I’m either the cheater or I’m trying to make somebody cheat.

Joanna: Oh yeah, I know that. Always being the aggressor, especially with girl/girl, it’s always part of the plot that you’re, like, turning a girl out or something.

Chantal: Which is crazy. In my personal life, I’m really shy when it comes to hooking up with people. It took me and my boyfriend, like, two weeks to actually have sex with each other. I’m not that way. I feel like maybe he expected me to be that way, but I’m super shy when it comes to that in my real life.

Joanna: I’m the same way! I’ve actually found a lot of tattooed girls are like that. I think it’s almost like we’re very loud on our bodies, and to make up for that loud we’re a little shy. Is there any particular thing you really want to get cast as that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?

Chantal: You know, I haven’t really thought about it. I know everyone asks, “What’s your dream set?” Honestly, I’m very go with the flow when it comes to my life. A lot of the things that I think about and I want to do, I usually do.

Joanna: I feel like now with OnlyFans, if you wanted to make something happen, you could just do it. You could literally make anything happen. You talked about how you and your boyfriend made videos on OnlyFans together. What was the conversation like when you told him that you wanted to do mainstream porn, or did you even have a conversation about it?

Chantal: I was with my ex when I originally started doing OnlyFans, that was, like, a few years ago and we actually broke up because I wanted to do porn. I started mainstream porn in October and I actually met my now boyfriend in November. I thought maybe we’ll see each other here and there, nothing serious. Cause I was honestly not planning to get in a relationship at all. I was like, who’s going to want to date me? It’s very hard, but I shouldn’t think like that. We had the conversation. So when things started getting more serious, I told him, “Look, this is what I do for work, if it’s gonna be an issue let me know now.” He was like, “I understand it’s just work, obviously it’s completely separate.” I go to work like everybody else, I come home, and we don’t really talk about it.

Joanna: Your fans who have been with you now since Day One got to see your transition from fitness model to OnlyFans to mainstream porn. Were people in the fitness community judgey at all?

Chantal: Oh yeah. They’re very different things. If someone’s following me for fitness, they didn’t follow me for porn, even if I made a very slow transition. I started [porn] in 2019, so it’s been almost three years now. I didn’t have a lot of followers at the time anyway. So it’s not like there was a time when people were like, “fuck you, I don’t want to follow you.” I didn’t really get any negative feedback at all. I’m sure the people who didn’t want to follow me just unfollowed me. There are people who followed me very randomly who have said, “You should go back to fitness,” or blah blah blah blah. I’m like, “Fuck off.”

Joanna: You’re like, whatever, I’m definitely still using my body, I’m still going to be in shape. You’re probably still using a lot of the things you learned in fitness.

Chantal: Flexibility! [laughs]

Joanna: Good. Yeah, exactly. You’re still working out, so to speak.

Chantal: I know. I shot yesterday and my legs are sore.

Joanna: Right? You have to be in good shape because you’re gonna get winded in a scene.

Chantal: That first cowgirl will kick your ass.

Joanna: It’s great you have had such a positive experience so far, a lot of people don’t realize that there’s actually so many great people to work with in the industry. I don’t know why so many people have this idea that girls have no control over their careers.

Chantal: It’s kind of crazy, and I’m actually really thankful for it. It all happened how I wanted it to, which is really crazy because I don’t hear that a lot.

Joanna: It must be the tattoos on your face. People are scared of you, so they don’t want to mess with you [laughs]. I can tell you have a strong personality and you put this certain energy out there where you’re like, here’s what I want, take it or leave it. You know? I think also these days things are a little different because you could walk away from any scene if something’s not going the way you want on set and still make your money on other platforms. Everybody has multiple streams of income now.

Chantal: Obviously, with all the girls having OnlyFans, they’re like, “I don’t need to do anything that I don’t want to do.” Being able to be like, “I’m just going to do OnlyFans,” gives you way more control and you don’t feel like you’re getting taken advantage of. But it’s definitely not for everybody. It’s not easy money, either.

Joanna: And it takes a lot of work. It’s a real job, you know, and any real job is going to have its challenges.