So let me see if I understand Melissa correctly. She was hired to work on porn sets, took unflattering before pictures, followed up with some after make up pics, posted them without permission, then fed them to huge sites subjecting some girls to ridicule and now wonders why she’s not welcome in some circles? I wouldn’t call it blacklisted… I’d call it fired.
Melissa Murphy used to eat, sleep, and breathe porn, but she didn’t watch it.
“I build relationships in the makeup chair,” Murphy tells me as she drags a red lip pencil over an adult actress’ lip.
“We talk about our love lives, our problems. I can’t go watch you have sex after this,” Murphy says, cupping the woman’s chin in her hands. “To me, you’re my sweet little girl who I make over into a pinup doll.”
For eight years, the folks in the porn industry were Murphy’s social circle. Adult actresses became her vacation buddies and closest confidants. But something happened in 2013 that threatened to unravel these relationships and destroy her career in the process.
You may remember this Business Insider article written about Murphy’s Instagram account, an account that surfaced on Reddit and was covered by every major news site from Gawker to The New York Post’s Page Six.
Collectively, the internet applauded Murphy’s artistry, often commenting on the staggering difference between before and after shots. The story was a favorite for readers, and its popularity inspired a follow-up I wrote this past summer: “Makeup artist posts shocking before-and-after photos of the porn stars she styles.”
And it only continues to make the rounds from there. Last week, BroBible, The Daily Mail, and The Mirror resurrected the story with galleries of their own.
A few months after the Business Insider article went live, I reached out to Murphy, wanting to see how internet fame was treating her. Had business taken off? Were porn stars clamoring to be made over by her?
Turns out, Murphy’s ascent into virality was anything but uplifting. Adult actresses accused Murphy of selling the story to the press, and photographers no longer welcomed her on set.
In one fell swoop, she lost her friends, career, and a bit of her sanity.
I recently spent the day with Murphy on the set of an erotic film shoot in Calabasas, California, to find out why going viral was the worst thing to ever happen to her — and why it was totally worth it.
