‘I had no idea’: Adelaide singer had photos stolen and photoshopped onto porn as a teenager

Adelaide singer Aleksiah has told of the confronting experience of having her photos stolen and made into pornographic images and how she’s reclaimed her pride and safety since the incident.

Musician Aleksiah at her home studio in Brompton. Picture: Morgan Sette

Adelaide singer-songwriter Alexia Damokas, known as Aleksiah, is reclaiming her pride, safety, and her face after a terrifying ordeal in which her photos were stolen and photoshopped in pornographic imagery as a teenager.

The then 19 year old’s photos were taken from her public Instagram profile, photos of her at the Fringe and with her friends, and then photoshopped onto images of porn stars engaging in sex acts, something Ms Damokas only found out through an acquaintance.

Musician Aleksiah, real name Alexia Damokas, at her home studio in Brompton, Kaurna Yarta. Picture: Morgan Sette

“Someone literally just saved photos that were public online of me just being a normal 19 year old, and photoshopped them onto pornographic images and then posted them on Twitter,” she said.

“I had no idea … someone who I did karaoke with sent me a message like ‘hey, we don’t know each other very well but I just found these on Twitter and thought I should tell you’.”

With help from family and friends who reported the Twitter account, it was removed a few days after Ms Damokas discovered it.

To this day, she still doesn’t know who did this to her.

The now 23 year old said the experience was "embarrassing and confronting”, but at the time she played it off as “a joke”.

It wasn’t until she got older that she realised how serious it was.

“I let it go and I joked about it and made it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal,” Ms Damokas explained.

“As I’ve gotten older, I was doing some soul searching and working on myself and going to therapy and I came across those photos again late last year and was like ‘wait a minute, this is not OK’.

“I allowed myself to actually think about this and properly process it … that was a complete invasion of my privacy, why did I joke about it? This isn’t a normal thing that happens to people.”

One of the images that circulated Twitter of Alexia Damokas. Picture: Supplied

Ms Damokas said she “had a completely different view” of herself when the photos were circulating and “didn’t want to cause a scene.”

“I didn’t want to make my feelings heard because I was scared of how I would be judged, so I took it upon myself to actually feel those emotions,” she said.

“I was angry, I was really confused, I was extremely embarrassed that people saw those photos of me because they weren’t me.

“It was embarrassing that people would see that, especially when I don’t feel comfortable sharing images of my naked body online.”

The acknowledgment of what happened to her years ago inspired the upcoming artist to write her new song ‘Pretty Picture’, which features harrowing lyrics relating to her experience as well as confronting prosthetic cover art of the words ‘Pretty Picture’ appearing to be sewn into Ms Damokas skin.

The cover art for ‘Pretty Picture’. Picture: Supplied

“I’m not embarrassed anymore, and I don’t think I have a reason to be because I did nothing wrong in the first place,” Ms Damokas said.

“The song is very in your face, I wrote it when I was angry and it came out in like half an hour.

“The song’s about reclaiming the pride and safety I felt I had lost and just realising how sad and pathetic that person was that made those photos.”

‘Pretty Picture” is out now and Ms Damokas is about to embark on a national tour supporting Adelaide girl group Teenage Joans in November.