Ok, I spoke to the co-worker regarding the "goth" cake. She found out that her son is "working out" of goth and is more interested in the Japanese/oriental culture. So now I am drawing a blank. If it were a girl, I could cover the thing in flowers and she would love it. Any ideas as to what to do for a boy???? He will be 15 or 16 years old. 
See if he has some favorite Japanni girls or guys. Ummm.... maybe I better explain...Japanni is Japanese Animation. Japanni is so awesome- way ahead of US animation. If he has some pics of favorite Japanni characters you could do buttercream transfers of them. (Provided the mother approved of them 
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You could do a cake using black and red as your main accent colors with a Japanese "character" (letter) that symbolizes something important. I'm sure a quick Google search will come up with great sites. You can even do an image search with Google. Also, there are a lot of rubber stamps with Japanese characters. You could buy one of these, stamp the image on a piece of paper, and then blow it up to a larger size on your computer or a copier. This could then be used to make a frozen buttercream transfer (or you can freehand it if you are good at that).
I'm picturing a cake (sheet, square, or round) iced in white with a large Japanese character in black in the center taking up most of the surface. Pipe the borders in an intense red with an Asian-influenced design. You could even use gold luster dust or edible gold leaf to add embellishments.
Good luck!
Dont forgot to post the done cake..... I am sure it will be great!
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