(clapclapclap)Good show, ol’ chap… 
When I first read it I did want to ask, Ostro- or Visi- ?
And Arch Trout, definitely it DOES say “my parents are middle class” – of course, theoretically, all of America between people on welfare and the Bushes is “middle class”…
On any given Friday, on the concourse between the Border’s Bookstore and the cineplex at San Juan’s über-Mall, Plaza Las Américas, you find a bunch of “goth” mid-teens. This initially left me doing this: :dubious: 
After all, this is a &^%#@ Caribean island and a @#%^& Latin ethnic group we’re talking about. We should be all about passion and heat and scant clothing not covering darkly tanned skin and ayy carrramba… 
:rolleyes: and not at all about dankness and darkness and paleness… right? … right? Then I realized… dude, of course! That’s even more radical here! And went back into Border’s for my latte, to fully embrace my tropical oldfartitude…
How can you not love Goths? Just LOOK at them…they look so damn funny! If my son wanted to get into Goth, I’d be all for it just for the amusement value alone.
OK, I just looked up “cosplay” in the Wikipedia, and and I am now more firmly convinced than ever that Japan is the answer to the question, “What if we turned a Star Trek convention into a country?”
I can’t wait until just a couple years from now when we get to the point where a black-clad, bechained kid comes home to find a old picture of another black-clad, bechained kid.
“Who’s that?”
“Your dad in high school.”
I think it sounds fine what you’ve done so far. Let him choose his own style, when it comes to temporary measures. I personally would draw the line at piercings and such–I think body modification is way too personal and important to allow a child to choose. Otherwise I don’t care how my (hypothetical) kids choose to dress or do their hair, as long as they’re clean and don’t smell .
I dabbled in Goth when I was in cegep. I was never that far into it (only dealt with the costume, never the music/clubs) and I realize now that I wasn’t really goth, I was just emo ante litteram. Well, we can’t have everything.
So yes, I probably made my dad sweat a bit (and he was a hippie! Like an actual one! When he met my mom he was in a band! For a living!) but as you can see I turned out relatively sensible.
Well, except for running for Parliament and everything, but that’s just because I fell in with the wrong crowd.