Angelo Espinoza was born in the barrio in South Central Los Angeles. He became a gang member. His powers triggered during a drive-by shooting. Angelo told no one and quickly decided to leave the gang by faking his own death. None of his friends or family were aware of this and many truly believed him to be dead. As a member of Generation X, Angelo performed fairly well, and increased his skill with his powers to the point where he could even rearrange his face. He used his skin both offensively and defensively, although he was sometimes reckless. Skin possesses between four and six feet of extra skin on his body. He was capable of stretching, deforming, wrapping, expanding, and compressing this extra amount of epidermis. When Skin is performing any of these stunts, it is only the epidermis that was manipulated; Skin's skeletal structure was the same as any normal, average boy of his age and height. When relaxed, Skin’s extra skin sags and gives him the appearance of a melted candle. At one point, along with compressing his skin tighter against his body, Skin was learning to manipulate the pigment melanin in his epidermis in order to appear normal. However, performing these two stunts together caused him to have migraines and he soon gave up on the idea of being normal. First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #317 (October, 1994) When relaxed, Skin’s extra skin sags and gives him the appearance of a melted candle. To keep people from knowing he is a mutant, he says his grey, loose skin is caused by a skin/pigment disease, most often he says he has elephantiasis.