Mall-goth

"The skull is all-purpose," said Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker. "It simultaneously refers to horror movies, to the Misfits and, by extension, all punk rock, and to a generalized culture of blackness and spookiness and the larger, mall-Goth culture."

“Lester, what the fuck?” he said, grinning and laughing as he clapped Lester on the shoulder, taking a young mall-goth’s five bucks out of a hand whose fingernails were painted with chipped black polish. “What the hell is going on here?”

Next, are the wannabe mall-goths of the 2000s. Self-proclaimed "e-girls" and "e-boys" sporting chain link chokers and belts, big black bell bottoms, outfits plastered with images of roses, and "emo" accessories and makeup that strives for a look that breaks society's conventions, but falls short.