It was the risqué tattoo and piercing parlour that earned notoriety as one of the city's most outrageous shops.
For a generation of Edinburgh stoners, goths and alternative types, Whiplash Trash was their little slice of Amsterdam's red light district right here in the capital, selling everything from Bob Marley-themed smoking implements, tobacco tins and rolling papers to latex lingerie, sex toys and bondage gear.
As purveyors of the "weird and wonderful", the saucy shop on Cockburn Street was not your average city centre establishment and it certainly carved itself a niche in the market in that respect.
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And while the street it was located on was no stranger to leftfield retail offerings, in its 2000s heyday 'Whiplash' definitely caused eyebrows to raise far higher than normal.
We asked Edinburgh Live readers to chime in with their memories of the legendary shop, which drew the curtains on its over-18s back room and pulled down its shutters for the final time in 2016.
Lots of people remembered purchasing all manner of unusual paraphernalia and garments from 'Gillie', the blonde-haired lady behind the counter, while many also recalled the late body piercing specialist 'Tails'.
Laura Clouston said: "Yes! Got my first nose piercing here, used to buy my goth stuff here too! Loved it."
Samantha Flynn wrote: "Got my belly button pierced and my lip. Also bought a PVC nurses outfit."
Daniel Grindlay recalled: "This is where I got my very first bong. They had stacks and stacks of them in all sorts of different shapes, sizes and colours. There wasn't a shop like it in the whole of Edinburgh!
"Great staff there too. You always felt a bit weird going in, but they'd make you feel really welcome."
Lorna Dalgleish said: "Loved this place. Had my piercings done here by Tails. He was a legend."
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Finlay Johns recalled: "Whiplash was an amazing space for those that celebrated the weird, the wonderful and the alternative in Edinburgh. You could get the most peculiar items in there from rolling papers that looked as though they were straight out of an Amsterdam coffee shop to bongs made of glass that you could see staff tending to with a feather duster during their shift.
"Many teens would go an get their first piercings down the stairs and the local dancers from the strip clubs would often come in and grab their outfits for performing on the weekend.
"The back room was not for the faint hearted as you had some pretty impressive yet daunting sex toys. You'd either have some very frisky customers or giggling school children trying to take a peek back there.
"It was probably the last bastion of the alternative Cockburn Street scene before it was turned into a jewellers. Cockburn used to be one of the coolest spots in Edinburgh but sadly it has been gentrified like most of the city centre. Whiplash is certainly missed."
Emma Smith added: "Omg what a flashback! Remember them so well. It was like all the cool kids would just walk in and look at everything. Piercing shop down the stairs as well. Tails hanging around outside saying 'hiya' to everyone as well."
The premises at 53 Cockburn Street are now occupied by boutique furniture, lighting and home accessories store Time & Tide - a world away from the kind of goods and services once offered by Whiplash Trash.
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