Skull Jewelry

Once the post-punk scene began to fragment in the early 1980s, one of several subcultures to emerge was the Gothic community, based around listening to bass heavy, brooding music and mainly all black clothing borrowing from styles as diverse as the Victorian era to bondage and fetish wear.

The Cure, Bauhaus, Souxsie and The Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy and The Cult all became linked to the Goth scene, although a number of these afterwards dissociated themselves from it. Nonetheless, in reality whatever was followed by Goths was Goth, as there was actually no uniting sound; even the lyrical subjects, although normally downbeat, were different; think of the introspection of “Pornography” era The Cure, in contrast to the bombastic sound of The Sisters of Mercy on Floodland.

In addition to the black clothes, hair coloring and eyeliner, many Goths also opted to wear crucifixes and religious symbols. With the Bauhaus anthem “Bela Lugosi Is Dead” arrived the cod-horror theatricals popular with bands such as Alien Sex Fiend, and as well as the bats and crosses came skull jewelry and other objects.

Although countless misitreperted the symbolism of Goth, believing it to be associated with violence or suicidal tendencies, the truth is the movement was in fact an accepting one – “anything goes” it was saying, and the visual aspect of death in the imagery was more to do with the concept of enjoying limited time, as opposed to actually wishing it. In this manner it was like the veritas veritatum works of art of the renaissance, when painters contrasted man’s vanity – cerebral pursuits and enjoyment of life – with the vanity of life. The latter was highlighted by a skull, and also at times underlined by an hourglass or candle.

After the usage of skull jewelry by Goths, the death’s head image was also used by Heavy Metal and bikers, even though the use was very different. While Goth was introspective and sometimes self indulgent, Heavy  Metal was a kind of cartoon rock without any real substance behind it.

These days skull jewelry can be found in many styles. Not just the stark metal death’s head, it is also seen in examples of precious metals and covered with diamonds.