Gothic fashion taking root
The first thing that captures the eye when Davy Kimaru walks into the room is his unusual attire.
He is dressed in a leather jacket embedded with bizarre decorations and a pair of tight jeans combed at the seams.
On further assessment, you notice a silver ring on his left eyebrow and another on the lower lip. He says a piercing on his tongue is just one of a dozen on his body. A mohawk hair-do crowns it all.
When he extends a handshake, I notice a spiked leather bracelet on his right hand. Then a chain made of small human skulls on his left wrist.
As he pulls up a seat, I discover the 24-year-old has countless tattoos on his light skin. To say he looks weird is an understatement. Petrifying, is more like it.
“I just love the horror written on your face. It is what fascinates me about people I meet,” he proclaims with a wide grin.
Kimaru is one of the many young people adopting a gothic fashion statement.
Never mind the perceptions that goths are linked to the occult. Kimaru and his like-minded friends love the attention they receive.
Chris Kish, a gothic and tattoo artist brushes off the idea that Kimaru’s style is linked to any cult. Instead, Kish explains that gothic is art that can be used to express various things; both good and bad.
“Besides I don’t believe in the occult but then, if there is good in the world, there is definitely evil,” says the 28-year-old.
Kish works with other artists under the banner Bigmeeych Tatoos on Moi Avenue.
They say a sense to belong is what motivates their clients.