Trust it to us goths to invent a new word which rhymes perfectly with kinky!

It also is really a fashion oriented word too, which explains why I have encountered it several times since then. All when people were talking about goth fashion. Its not limited to chainmail now either. It also describes leather pants, gothic corsets, and anything else in gothic fashion that is hot and sexy.

Tattoos, depended on their quality and what they are, could also be Chinky.

The recent Lord of the Rings movies may also have had a role to play in this new popularity of a word describing the holes in chainmail. None of the characters in LOTR are Chinky of course. Not even Saruman comes close because he is too wrinkly. No, Chinky is definitely a youthful thing. Old people cannot be Chinky. Its like imagining your parents having a 69, it just does not work.

Chinky is kind of like "bling bling", the hip hop word to describe a person who wears a lot of gold (like Mr T) and/or likes to show off their wealth. Bling bling originally being the sound gold makes when it rattles against itself.

If you'd like to buy some Chinky jewelry for yourself or a special goth you know try Chainmail or tryThe Gothic Fashion Directory.

The Dark Side of Style
Designers with a difference are breaking away from the main event.
March 17, 2005
By Jill Stark.

They may be a tad morose and their fashion sense not to everyone's taste, but you can't deny that the modern-day Goth has style.

The days when our Gothic friends were content just to throw on some black clothes and paint dark lines under their eyes are long gone. Now, any discerning member of this much-maligned subculture tries a bit harder to create a unique look.

In a catwalk show in the city tonight, hundreds of Goths will gather to catch a glimpse of some of the most innovative and subversive designs you're likely to see in the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Set to the gloomy sounds of Nick Cave and Bauhaus, Nocturnal Instincts offers a refreshing alternative to the polished glamour of mainstream couture.

Sixty Gothic models in a one-off runway show will sport fashion oddities that include armoured metal costumes, skirts made from the inner tubes of tyres, cyberwear and, of course, lots of black PVC.

Designers with wonderfully obscure names such as Tinkervamp, Geomythik and Asylum 7 will show there's more to Goth fashion than black trenchcoats and Dr Marten boots.

"So many people take so much care in what they wear. If you want to see a well-dressed guy, you can see that in Goth culture," says organiser Nikaya Lewis. "Gothic fashion has a whole separate history of its own. It's predominantly black, but with the cyber influences you find a lot of colour coming through. Our show has been put together to be the complete antithesis to what's happening in fashion week."

And although they may be marginalised by polite society, Lewis maintains Gothic style is still mimicked by many big-name designers.

"There are a lot of elements of the Goth subculture creeping into mainstream fashion," she says. "There are a lot of examples of designers using things that are traditionally Gothic, like lace or period-inspired styles, and PVC is making a bit of a leap. It's not something that Goths are always happy to have taken into the mainstream, because we like to be different and separate."

But Lewis insists the show will not be a sullen occasion and expects audiences to party on into the wee hours at a Gothic club following the fashion parade. "There are some really depressed and sad people in the culture, but a lot of people have moved on from that quite a while ago. They're out to have a good time and are just attracted to this style. It's fashion and music-driven; it's not about whether they're an angry person. Generally, Goths are quite opinionated, but they're harmless - you wouldn't go into a Goth club and get a brawl; it just wouldn't happen.

"This is about people who are willing to stand up and say, 'I'm not happy about how our mainstream is approaching fashion - we want to do things differently.' It's a good opportunity to say this is who we are and this is what we do."