Graffiti and You
People have seen what they feel is graffiti for over 50 years in the United States. But the origin of graffiti goes further back. The origins of graffiti goes back to the beginnings of human, societal living. Graffiti has been found on uncovered, ancient, Egyptian monuments, and graffiti even was preserved on walls in Pompeii. Graffiti is the plural form of the Italian word grafficar. In plural, grafficar signifies drawings, markings, patterns, scribbles, or a message that are painted, written, or carved on the wall or surface(Stowers, 1). The origins of the graffiti we know of today started back in the 60’s. It all started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the late ‘60s and is rooted in bombing. The writers who are credited with the first tagging effort are CORNBREAD and COOL EARL. They wrote their names all over the city with pens getting the cities attention with the new sight of writing. It is unclear whether this concept made its way to New York deliberately or if it was a spontaneous occurrence (Graffiti history, at149st.com).
Shortly after CORNBREAD, the Washington Heights section of Manhattan was seeing new names on the walls of people who wanted their name known. One of those writers was a young man with the alias name TAKI 183. TAKI was a nickname for his birth name Demetrius and the 183 was the number of the street where he lived. He was a foot messenger so he went on the subway frequently and he took advantage of it by writing his name on the trains as he rode them from place to place. The appearance of his unusual name and numeral sparked public curiosity. TAKI 183 was by no means the first writer to spread his name or even the first king. He was however the first to be recognized outside the newly formed subculture (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
After a while there were so many people writing other writers needed a new way to gain fame. The first way was to make your tag unique. Many script and calligraphic styles were developed. Writers enhanced their tags with decorations, such as stars and other designs. Some designs were strictly for visual appeal while others had meaning. For instance, crowns were used by writers who proclaimed themselves kings, which means they were the best at a certain area of graffiti. Probably the most famous tagging in the culture’s history was STAY HIGH 149. He used a smoking joint as the cross bar for his “H” and the stick figure from the television series The Saint (Graffiti history, at149st.com).
The next development was scale. Writers started to render their tags in larger scale. The regular nozzle width of spray paint can is narrow so these larger tags, drew more attention than a standard tag, but did not impress the viewer visually. Writers began to increase the thickness of the letters and would also outline them with an additional color to give the letters depth. Writers discovered that caps from other aerosol products could provide a larger width of spray. This led to the development of the masterpiece. It is unclear on who did this first masterpiece, but it is mostly credited to SUPER KOOL 223 of the Bronx and WAP of Brooklyn. The thicker letters provided the opportunity to further enhance the name. Writers decorated the interior of the letters with “designs.” First with simple polka dots, later with crosshatches, stars, and checkerboards. Designs were limited only by an artist’s own style (Graffiti history, at149st.com).
PHASE 2 later developed the softie letters, more commonly known as Bubble letters. Bubble letters and Broadway style were the earliest forms of actual pieces and therefore the foundation of many styles. Soon arrows, curls, and twists accompanied letters. These additions became increasing complex and would become the basis for Mechanical or Wild Style lettering. The combination of PHASE’s work and the imagination of other style masters, like RIFF 170 and PEL, furthered the development of these letters. RIFF is noted as being an early agitator in what is termed style wars. He took other writers styles and improved them to take them to another level (Graffiti history, at149st.com).
For the most part, newfangled ideas in writing hit a plateau after 1974. All the standards had been set and a new school was about to reap the benefits of the artistic foundations established by prior generations and a city in the midst of a economic crisis. New York City was broke and therefore the transit system was poorly maintained. This led to the heaviest bombing in history (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
A new era of creativity came about in late 1977 with crews like TDS, TMT, UA, MAFIA, TS5, CIA, RTW, ROC Stars, TMB, TFP, TC5, and TF5. Style wars were once again peaking. It was also the last wave of bombing before the Transit Authority made the elimination of writing a priority. On Broadway, CHAIN 3, KOOL 131, PADRE, NOC 167 and Part1 were augmenting the styles established by writers like PHASE 2, RIFF 170, and PEL. CHAIN later went to the 2 and 5 lines with the TMT crew. In style war tradition, CIA countered TMT’s works. DONDI came out with POSE against CHAIN’s DOSE (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
During the early-to mid-1980s the writing culture altered dramatically due to several factors. Some related directly to the graffiti culture itself and others to the greater society in general. The crack cocaine outbreak was taking its toll on the inner city. The climate on the street became increasingly tense. Laws restricting the sale of paint to minors and requiring merchants to place spray paint in locked cages made shoplifting more difficult. Legislation was working on a way to make penalties for graffiti more severe. The major change was the increase in the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s anti-graffiti budget. Yards and lay-ups were more closely guarded. Many favored painting areas became almost impossible to enter. Graffiti removal was stronger and more consistent than ever, making the life span of many paintings months if not days. This frustrated many writers causing them to quit writing (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
On certain subway lines graffiti removal significantly decreased because the cars servicing those lines were headed for the scrap yards. This provided writers their last opportunity for fame in the graffiti world. The last big surge on the 2 and 5 lines came from writers like WANE, WEN, DERO, WIPS, TKID, SENTO, CAVS, CLARK and MKAY who hit the white 5s with burners. Marker tags that soaked through the paint often blemished these burners. A trend had developed that was a definite step back for writing. Due to a lack of paint and courage to stay in a lay up for prolonged periods of time, many writers were tagging with markers on the outside of subway cars. These tags usually had poor artistic efforts. The days when writers took pride in their hand style were long gone. If it wasn’t for the faithful writers and a few others, the art form in New York City could have officially been declared dead. By mid ‘86 the MTA was gaining the upper hand. Many writers quit and the violence subsided. Most lines were
ompletely free of writing. The Ds, Bs, LLs, Js, M, were among the last lines with running pieces. MAGOO, DOC TC5, DONDI, TRAK, DOME and DC were all highly visible writers (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
On May 12, 1989 the MTA declared the victory over graffiti. The MTA set in affect a policy of removing all marked subway cars from service. They figured if they got rid of the trains that artist could hit then the graffiti would go with them. This is the birth of what is known as the Clean Train Movement. There were many writers who believe subway painting is the defining act in being a writer. Walls, freights, scraps, and canvas are for fake writers. These writers refuse to give up the battle against the MTA. Even though works only run for one trip many people still wrote. This battle has been going on since the 12th of May and is still strong in the streets of New York (Graffiti history, at149at.com).
Graffiti had a positive impact on American society in the beginning of the art form. But the art turned into a competition and crews would get crossed out. This would make the art turn into violence. Also there became too many writers and there were not enough places to write so the cities suffered. Even big cities got too much of the graffiti. So police had to put a stop to it. This problem really hurt the artform. During graffiti’s evolution, gangmembers started to use graffiti as a way to mark territory. Petty vandalism also gave graffiti a bad reputation.
There are several different solutions when it comes to getting society to appreciate graffiti as an actual art form. The author feels that if the city of Stockton had places for artist to show their skills then the city would save money on cleaning up walls and businesses. Another way to stop the writings on property could be if property owners hired artist to make build boards or commercials with art work. It is simple to get them off the streets. The community needs to stop trying to avoid them and use them for personal gain. That way both parties gets what they need. A further way to stop graffiti would be if people would not wait for the city to clean up the walls and do it themselves so their neighborhood is clean. However, all of these suggestions take great amounts of effort and commitment.
There are many facts about graffiti that the author was not aware of before his research. Some of the most important was the ancient writings are considered graffiti, that there are so many taggers in Stockton and in the world in general, that violence often occurs in the world of graffiti, and that modern graffiti started so long ago. The researcher still feels that graffiti is very interesting. The stance on this topic never changed except for maybe for the better.
Graffiti isn’t a topic that can have a lack of awareness. If the awareness of graffiti is not kept strong then the city could be overwhelmed with writings in pen and spray paint. This will hurt the city because of the cost to paint over the graffiti.
You need to help unless you want to see writing on your walls and signs.
For more information contact me at:
DJDizzle@yahoo.com
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