Punks in Fanworks

Tropes and genres
Tropes and genres
Related tropes/genres	Body Modification, Band AU, Punk AU
See also	cyberpunk, steampunk, Leftism in Fandom
	Related articles on Fanlore.
	Contents 1 Punk Edits; 2 Fanwork Examples 2.1 MCU Fanworks; 2.2 Harry Potter Fanworks; 2.3 Blake's 7; 2.4 Gallery; ; 3 Meta; 4 Resources; 5 References;

Fans sometimes incorporate elements of punk culture in fanfiction and fanart. This may be because the canon incorporates elements of punk culture and aesthetics, or takes place in a time period where this culture was likely to be present (e.g. the 1970s).

Other times, the inclusion of punk culture might be part of an AU: a punk rock band AU, a historical AU, a high school AU where one or more characters is a punk, or a general punk AU.

Some fannish music may itself be classified as punk rock music; see Wizard Rock.

Since punk has many affiliations with left wing politics, sometimes the incorporation of punk into fanworks will also incorporate left ideologies with it. Quite often however, this isn't the case and the punk is purely aesthetics.

Punk Edits

On Tumblr, the most popular punk-related fanworks are punk edits: any photo of a person photoshopped to make them look like a punk (usually by adding tattoos, piercings, eye liner, and dyed hair). Not all edits are fan edits, but fans do post punk edits of their favorite celebrities or characters from TV or film. Typically, the subject is not already a punk, though it is possible to find "punk edits" of people associated with alternative music scenes or punk music.^[1]

The ultimate origin of punk edits on Tumblr may be Disney fandom in 2011-2012. Punkifying Disney characters was part of a larger fanart trend in that fandom of creating "dark" versions of Disney characters. There are Punk Disney examples as far back as June 2011^[2], though the beginning of the punk disney tag dates to December 11, 2011. However, these images were not labeled punk edits. The runaway popularity of the meme in other fandoms may be the fault of One Direction fans who started posting Punk Louis Tomlinson edits on or before December 12, 2012.^[3] The punk edits tag only goes as far back as December 16, filled with fans having emotional melt downs over the Punk Louis edits already in circulation.^[4]

How punk edits leaped from Disney to 1D is uncertain, but 1D Tumblr fans were definitely seeing punk Disney posts on their dashboards.^[5] (Comparing 1D members to Disney characters is a favorite pastime on Tumblr.) The overlapping memes for "Punk Louis Tomlinson," "Punk Peter Pan," and "Peter Pan Louis" may or may not be a coincidence.

In 2014, YouTubers became aware of their fans making punk edits of them and started making "punk edits in real life" videos. Possibly the first was The New Me, posted by Marcus Butler August 18, 2014. Youtuber punk edits appear in the Tumblr tags almost as early as 1D edits^[6], and one of the earliest danisnotonfire edits^{[dead link]} was actually posted by a 1D account.

Fanwork Examples

For examples of fanworks by punks, see ZineWiki.

MCU Fanworks

Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are often depicted as punks in fanart:

commission by vylla-art (August 6, 2014)
punk bucky and his tiny hipster boyfriend by pidgeyons (May 17, 2014)
STEVE AND BUCKY PUNK!AU by buckybbarnes (July 2014)

Harry Potter Fanworks

Because the Marauders were at Hogwarts during the 1970s, they (particularly Sirius Black) are often depicted as punks or wearing punk-related clothing (e.g. a Sex Pistols T-shirt).

punk-ish!Maradeurs, huh? by dasstark (fanart) (August 4, 2016)
Sirius Black circa 1980, my magical punk son by meaningfulandoriginalurl (fanart) (September 7, 2018)
Agender with punk and sirius black themes by some-more-moodboards (moodboard) (June 5, 2018)
Prompt. Remus is into photography and follows Sirius around secretly compiling pictures of him; laughing, serious, candid. And somehow Sirius finds some. by pansexual-remus-lupin (fanfiction, non-magic AU with punk!Sirius) (February 2, 2016)

Blake's 7

see The Hellhound Universe and The Log of the Hellhound

Gallery

2013 fanfic cover art by mala_ptica for Anarchy in the UK by Yahtzee and based on the famous poster for the Sex Pistols song of the same name. The story itself is a Royalty AU and not related to punk rock beyond the title.
A punk edit of three members of the boyband One Direction, punkified with (more) tattoos, piercings, and a "Drop Dead" t-shirt design. (2013)
punk AU portrait of Castiel from Supernatural by winchester-reload (2017)
the Hellhound Kerr Avon, from Southern Seven #1, artist is Katrina Snyder (1986)

Resources

AO3 fanwork tags Punk and Alternate Universe - Punk

References

^ For example, Gerard Way, former frontman of My Chemical Romance, canonically wears eyeliner and dyes his hair unusual colors, but does not have tattoos or piercings. A few tumblr users tried to close the gap. Similarly, 5 Seconds of Summer, a pop-punk band who have achieved mainstream success but look the part, is a popular subject of punk edits.
^ See this punk Ariel/Erik edit by Tumblr user vici0us, posted 17 June 2011.
^ AU: Louis Tomlinson, Drop dead model, reblogged at 10 pm on December 12, 2012, or this untitled Punk Louis edit, reblogged at 2 p.m, may be the earliest punk direction edit. (The original posts have since been deleted.) Five days later (December 17), Louis Tomlinson mentioned the Punk Louis edits on Twitter. "Just seen all these punk edits of pictures of me, makes me want more tattoos !!" (tweeted at 5:09 AM). It is likely no coincidence that tumblrs punkdirections and punkonedirectionedits started posting that same day. The punk louis (December 14), punk larry (December 16), 1d punk (December 17), and 1d punk edits (December 17) tags also started in December 2012.
^ See the beginning of the punk edits tag, currently a post of Louis edits made so far, collected by Tumblr user floruh, December 16th 2012, 11:24:00 pm: Kay so.....You wanna light yourself on fire? Sure..., ^{Archived version}
^ Can these punk edits of One Direction please stop? I hated them enough on Disney characters, but this is even worse. untitled tumblr post by this-is-not-just-in-myhead, ^{Archived version}, posted December 18, 2012.
^ Examples: danisnotonfire punk edit^{[dead link]} reposted December 21, 2012; Jack and Finn punk edit posted by l-opsidedsmile December 18, 2012.

[1] For example, Gerard Way, former frontman of My Chemical Romance, canonically wears eyeliner and dyes his hair unusual colors, but does not have tattoos or piercings. A few tumblr users tried to close the gap. Similarly, 5 Seconds of Summer, a pop-punk band who have achieved mainstream success but look the part, is a popular subject of punk edits.

[2] See this punk Ariel/Erik edit by Tumblr user vici0us, posted 17 June 2011.

[3] AU: Louis Tomlinson, Drop dead model, reblogged at 10 pm on December 12, 2012, or this untitled Punk Louis edit, reblogged at 2 p.m, may be the earliest punk direction edit. (The original posts have since been deleted.) Five days later (December 17), Louis Tomlinson mentioned the Punk Louis edits on Twitter. "Just seen all these punk edits of pictures of me, makes me want more tattoos !!" (tweeted at 5:09 AM). It is likely no coincidence that tumblrs punkdirections and punkonedirectionedits started posting that same day. The punk louis (December 14), punk larry (December 16), 1d punk (December 17), and 1d punk edits (December 17) tags also started in December 2012.

[4] See the beginning of the punk edits tag, currently a post of Louis edits made so far, collected by Tumblr user floruh, December 16th 2012, 11:24:00 pm: Kay so.....You wanna light yourself on fire? Sure..., ^{Archived version}

[5] Can these punk edits of One Direction please stop? I hated them enough on Disney characters, but this is even worse. untitled tumblr post by this-is-not-just-in-myhead, ^{Archived version}, posted December 18, 2012.

[6] Examples: danisnotonfire punk edit^{[dead link]} reposted December 21, 2012; Jack and Finn punk edit posted by l-opsidedsmile December 18, 2012.

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