You see, Ralph is far from skini, if you'll pardon the pun. He's a 300+ pound biker with a reputation for a bad temper who inherited some money in the late '80's and decided to open a shop with it. He's known more for his Harley-Davidson t-shirts than his business accumen, his quick fists more than his penchant for accounting. But he's really done it. Skini's celebrated its 10th year in '99, and it shows no sign of slowing down now.

The inside is full of more neon, black leather, and bare brick walls covered with heavy metal posters from the heyday of big hair. There are clothing offerings like lace-up leather camisoles and zippered leather pants, all-hemp sweatshirts and baseball caps meant to be worn backwards. Alternative literature holds one rack -- and Skini's actually inspired two high school students to start their own zine at one point -- which ended when the anonymous pair were made not-so-anonymous and were tossed out of school for the foul language used therein. CDs and tapes hold another long set of racks, mostly with names like "Def Leppard" and "Vixen". But they fly out of the store without another look. The '80's, it seems, is still in vogue.

Behind a velvet curtain, you can have body parts pierced, or stained with needles and ink at a relatively low cost. They were going to offer branding, but a parental group shut that down.

Skini's is like walking back a decade or two in time. For those of us who grew up during those dark days of big hair and Warrant concerts, it might not be as fun to revisit as it is for the kids of Norfolk present, who seem to believe that this is the height of cool.

Go see. Buy. And while you're there, tease your bangs. Might as well get into the spirit of things.