diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index e12f16d3..d807e0d9 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ pytest-timeout
 pytest-cov
 Cython>=0.28.5
 scikit-learn>=0.22
-scikit-image>=0.18.3
+scikit-image==0.18.3
 torchtnt-nightly
diff --git a/torcheval/metrics/image/ssim.py b/torcheval/metrics/image/ssim.py
index 78cda212..d6c36130 100644
--- a/torcheval/metrics/image/ssim.py
+++ b/torcheval/metrics/image/ssim.py
@@ -11,12 +11,7 @@
 
 import torch
 
-try:
-    from skimage.metrics import structural_similarity
-
-    _SKIMAGE_AVAILABLE = True
-except ImportError:
-    _SKIMAGE_AVAILABLE = False
+from skimage.metrics import structural_similarity
 
 from torcheval.metrics.metric import Metric
 
@@ -24,13 +19,6 @@
 TStructuralSimilarity = TypeVar("TStructuralSimilarity")
 
 
-def _validate_skimage_available() -> None:
-    if not _SKIMAGE_AVAILABLE:
-        raise RuntimeError(
-            "scikit-image is required. Please make sure ``scikit-image`` is installed."
-        )
-
-
 class StructuralSimilarity(Metric[torch.Tensor]):
     """
     Compute the structural similarity index (SSIM) between two sets of images.
@@ -44,8 +32,6 @@ def __init__(
         self: TStructuralSimilarity,
         device: Optional[torch.device] = None,
     ) -> None:
-        _validate_skimage_available()
-
         super().__init__(device=device)
 
         self._add_state("mssim_sum", torch.tensor(0, device=device, dtype=torch.float))