I've liked "the dark side" probably since early childhood, when I would always idolize cartoon villians and monsters instead of heroes. Skeletor, Mysterio, Cobra Commander and Mumm-ra were personal role models for me

Musically, I discovered metal first, but had always been open to other dark, supernatural styles of music. My uncle introduced me to Bauhaus, The Cure, Skinny Puppy, and Siouxsie and the Banshees before I knew what "goth" was. I was always dressing in black and growing my hair long.

I think the first time I was introduced to the goth "scene" was when I was 20. Before that, I already knew who Sisters of Mercy, Clan of Xymox, Diary of Dreams, Fields of the Nephilim, and Diamanda Galas were, but was never actually aware there was a scene behind it.

I think it grew from there. To this day I'm always trying to learn more about artists and styles I may have missed along the way....

I'm also proud to say I've always hated Manson and mallcore.
Fuck urban music!!!

I was always considered odd but it was during my teens that I found Goth bands and from there discovered a subculture that fit who I was for once. I'm now 26 and I don't see myself changing.

My mom really likes the cure, so all growing up I listened to them. I started listening to industrial, most notably rammstein, kmfdm and nine inch nails when I was 12, and I started dressing goth when I was 14.

I've had the goth mentality since I was 7ish. First dyed my hair purple when I was 11, official baby bat when I was 12. I have occasional phases of different fashions but basically I've been goth since I remember.

About 1998. I was into punk (or what a teenager in a tiny town could pick up. Pop stuff.) Things happened. I heard a snippet of a Siouxsie song and looked up the artist online. A friend lent me the movie Beetlejuice. My art teacher lent me a Sisters of Mercy album and a copy of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (yeah, an adult handed that to a kid, but she judged me pretty well.) Later I found Gothic Miss Manners and was charmed by that.

I kept my interests well hidden until college because of fallout from Columbine.

But if you want to go into the reason I have the tastes I do, I always like to blame it on my grim fortress of a church, the classical organ music and the forbidding atmosphere at home. (kidding. mostly.) As a little kid I was traumatized by the "Hearse Song" and used to lie awake at night thinking about being buried alive. (sadly I'm not kidding about that part.) Making really morbid jokes and learning about ways people deal with death helped me get over that. "Counterphobic" is the appropriate word, I believe.

So, yeah, that was probably just a little too much information.

When I was like 8 I was the typical baby bat... when I was about 9 I actually got introduced to Einsturzende Neubauten but I was kind of scared of it... XD A couple years later I remembered it and slowly started getting into goth........lol

I have always been interested in the scene and style but have only recently got the attitude and balls together to embrace it. I am 21 and leaving university this year but better late than never.

Reading through this forum I was surprised that there are still alot of people 'coming out' as it were in their twenties and thirties. Great

I always thought I'm dark and different. Since I remember I like The Adams family and dark chlothes. I dont't know but probably for me is a life thing.

It snuck up on me in my early twenties. It wasn't so much a decision, as looking at my wardrobe, my CD collection and my bookshelves after a couple of years of being asked if I was a Goth, and thinking "hey, maybe I am a bit!"

37. Took me some time to make up my mind.

(actually there is an obviously long story involved I'll skip for now)

Hell no, I found what you wrote fascinating. It reminded me of Poe's preoccupation of being buried alive, and also that Serpent in the Rainbow movie. And it also reminded me of the short story the Tomb by HP Lovecraft. Have you ever read it? It's about a child's preoccupation with mausoleum.

Ha, that's good. I've never seen The Serpent and the Rainbow, though I hear it involves a mangled version of voodoo. I'm not sure if I've read The Tomb, so I'll look it up.

Edit: Yeah, I read the story a long time ago. I hope you don't think my time as a kid was that dramatic, though. It was really pretty normal, if you don't count a few relatives who belong in Faulkner stories.

I would say my tendencies began just this year. Being twenty, I realized Halloween was my favorite day of the year. I love watching horror movies on that particular day. <3

That, and along with my love for gothic classical began to sprout earlier this year as well.

12, I am 13 now. I'm still a baby bat but I've met Emilie Autumn and have read Gothic Charm School so I'm good on gothy credentials I'd say.

There's not exactly a real moment, or age.

I've always been darker, have always identified more with the complex so called evil characters in movies.

Halloween has always been my favorite time of the year, because you can get all gussied up the way you want to be without having to deal with the "norms" and their bullying ways.