Graffiti is a lifestyle of its own, it is a growing culture that is comparable to the Hieroglyphics in Egypt. The Hieroglyphics in Egypt were used amongst the Egyptians as a way to keep track of history and remembering historic events, it was fist used as a way for the Egyptians to communicate amongst themselves. Still to this day historians are deciphering hieroglyphics. Graffiti is no different; Graffiti writers use their art from to communicate with one another while getting their name up. Graffiti writers have also developed their own terminology that is used to communicate with other graffiti writers. If there were two graffiti writers having a conversation in front of a person who wasn’t educated on the topic, it would be difficult to decipher exactly what they were saying. In order to help my audience better understand my presentation I will include a list of these terms.
For Example:
BACKGROUND-Originated on the subways out of neccessity. Backgrounds were used to make the piece stand out from all the tags and assorted scribbling on a subway car that make the piece hard to discern; the color or design painted behind the piece to make it stand out from the wall or train.
BITE-To copy another writer’s style. This is considered a no-no and is looked down upon.
BOMB-Prolific painting or marking with ink. To cover an area with your tag, throwups, etc.
BOMBING-To go out writing.
BUBBLE LETTERS-A type of graffiti letters, usually considered to be an older (and sometimes outmoded) style. Often used for throwup letters because of their rounded shape, which allows for quick formation. Phase2 originally created this style.
BUFF-Any means employed by the transit authority to remove graffiti from trains. The more modern usage is when any graffiti is gone over or removed from any surface, not necessarily just from trains.
TO BUFF, BUFFED-to erase, erased.
BURN-To beat the competition with your style. Also refers to a really good piece, as in one that “burns”.
BURNER-Originally a well-done wildstyle window-down whole car, a burner is a very good piece. Obviously, the reference to a window-down car is not applicable for pieces that are not on trains. A burner is any piece that has good bright colors, good style (often in wildstyle) and seems to “burn” off of the wall.
CAP, FAT or SKINNY (tips)-Interchangable spray-can nozzles fitted to the can to vary the width of spray. These are usually racked off of commercial products, such as K-Mart’s Bug and Tar, various cleaning products or starches. Many stores and graffiti fanzines sell caps nowadays. Also referred to as “tips” (as in “flare tips” and “thin tips”.) The really big fat caps are sometimes called “softballs” because of the wide and soft-looking spray they produce. Tips are sometimes referred to by a certain number of fingers, corresponding to the width of the spray (for example, a “four-finger spray” would be about as wide as your hand. The number on the front of a tip is the catalog number for that model.
CLOUD-Stylistic form applied to pieces. The use of clouds is not as freqent now as it was in the early days of subway car painting. See “background”.
CREW-A loosely organized group of writers who also tag the crew initials along with their name. Crew names are usually three letters, many times ending with “K”, which stands for “kings” or “kills” in most cases. Some crew names are just two letters, some are four, it all depends.
CUTTING LINES-A painting technique used on inside fills of letters and characters to get thin lines, thinner than thin tips.
DIS-To insult. Comes from “disrespect”. Originally it was just a hip-hop/rap term but has found its way into the culture at large.
DOPE-Originally a rap/hip-hop term that means “cool”.
DOWN-To be in with, part of the group or action (as in “he’s down with us”). Part of your connection, if you are down with someone.
DRIPS-Stylized drips drawn onto letters to add effect. Although inept paint application causing unintentional drips is considered the mark of a toy and is wack, stylized drips drawn on letters are acceptable. This style originated early on in New York subway graffiti.
FADE-To blend/blended colors.
FAME-What a writer gets when he/she is constantly and consistently getting up. One of the goals of writers is to have fame within the subculture of writers, and some, like Chaka, aim to have fame (or at least be recognized) outside of the subculture.
FILL-The solid interior color of letters on a piece or throwup.
FLAT-Older slab-sided type of subway car; the most suitable surface for painting. This term refers mainly to subways, although it could refer to certain types of freight cars as well.
FLICKS-Prints of photos of graffiti. Also “flick” (singular) and “flix” (plural).
FLY-Cool, same as “fresh”. Early hip-hop term.
FRESH-New, cool, good. An early hip-hop term.
GETTING UP-Originally, “getting up” meant to sucessfully hit a train. Now it means to hit up anything, anywhere, with any form of graffiti, from a tag all the way up to a wildstyle burner — although the term implies the process of tagging repeatedly to spread your name. Tagging something once would be getting up, but would not make you an “up” writer.
GOING OVER-One writer covering another writer’s name with his/her own. Also known as “X-ing out” or “crossing out”. “Crossing out” is usually just that, painting an X over another writers tag or piece. In the early days of New York graffiti, Cap was the master of doing black and white throwups to go over people. There was even a crew called TCO (the cross outs), whose main goal was to cross everyone out. See also “blockbuster letters”.
HIT-To tag up any surface with paint or ink.
HIT UP-When something is covered with tags.
HOMEMADE-A type of homemade marker made out of old deodorant containers stuffed with socks or felt chalkboard erasers and filled with ink. Homemades have been made out of many things, including (most commonly) various deodorant containers all the way up to VHS videotapes. (!) Homemades have also been called “mean streaks,” although this has no relation to the paint stick made by Sanford corporation.
HOMEMADE INK-A kind of homemade ink made for your homemade marker. The basic recipe involves shredding carbon paper and mixing it with alcohol and/or lighter fluid. Said to be almost as good as grocery store ink.
KING-The best with the most. Some people refer to different writers as kings of different areas. King of throwups, king of style, king of a certain line, etc.
MAD-Crazy, lots. “That man has maaaad spots.”
MURAL-A large-scale type of piecing, done top to bottom on a wall; usually a large production involving one or two pieces and usually some form of characters.
OLD SCHOOL-General term used to refer to the early days of writing, more specifically, the mid 70s to ’82 or ’83. Also may refer to hip-hop music of this period. Old-school writers are given respect for being there when it all started, and specific writers are remembered for creating specific styles. For example, Blade and Comet created blockbusters, Phase 2 created bubble letters, clouds, Skeme’s “S”, and so on.
OUTLINE-The drawing done in a piecebook in preparation for doing the actual piece. Also called a sketch. Can also refer to the outline put on the wall and then filled, or the finaloutline done around the piece to finish it.
PANEL PIECE-A painting below the windows and between the doors of a subway car.
PIECE-A graffiti painting, short for masterpiece. It’s generally agreed that a painting must have at least three colors to be considered a piece.
TO PIECE-To paint graffiti, creating a piece, not just go out tagging.
PIECEBOOK-A writer’s sketchbook where outlines and ideas to be executed are kept and worked out. Also referred to as a “black book” or a “writer’s bible”.
PROPS-Respect, comes from “proper respect”. From hip-hop/rap.
RACK-To steal, usually paints or markers. In the past, most writers stole all materials used for painting. Due to paint lockups in California and other areas, this is no longer possible, so most paint is now bought.
ROLL CALL-Tagging everyone’s name in a crew, or the list of people who helped create it to the side of the piece. Not done very often – tagbangers seem to like doing this.
SCRIBER-A tagging instrument, usually made out of a diamond drillbit, used to physically engrave one’s name on buses and mass transit vehicles. Considered by some writers to be more destructive than is needed. Sandpaper is sometimes used to tag buses in the same manner–it too is considered mass destruction.
SCRUB-A certain type of throwup (usually two colors) that is filled very quickly with back-and-forth lines, rather than filled in solid.
STICKERS-(Sticks)A form of tagging, most commonly saying “Hello, my name is”. Can be anything from computer-generated, clear, generic blank stickers that have the writer’s name on them to elaborate stickers with little pieces and characters. Some writers consider stickers to be for people who are “afraid” to use markers/paint, while other writers use a combination of stickers with markers and paint.
SUCKER TIPS-The stock tip that comes with a can of spraypaint. So named because only suckers would piece or tag with said tip. That said, lots of old school kings used nothing but stock tips back in the day.
TAG-The most basic form of graffiti, a writer’s signature with marker or spray paint. It is the writer’s logo, his/her stylized personal signature. If a tag is long it is sometimes abbreviated to the first two letters or the first and last letter of the tag. Also may be ended with the suffixes “one”, “ski”, “rock”, “em” and “er”.
TAGGING UP-The act of writing a signature with marker or spraypaint.
TAGGER-As opposed to “writer”; this term is usually used to refer to those who only do tags and throwups and who never piece. Some taggers seem to like more destructive methods such as scribers and sandpaper in addition to markers and paint. Some taggers do get interested in piecing, some don’t. Taggers who never piece are sometimes called “scribblers” by more experienced, piecing writers.
THROWUP-(Throws)Over time, this term has been applied to many different types of graffiti. Subway art says it is “a name painted quickly with one layer of spray paint and an outline”, although some consider a throwup to be bubble letters of any sort, not necessarily filled. Throwups can be from one or two letters to a whole word or a whole roll call of names. Often times throwups incorporate an exclamation mark after the word or letter. Throwups are generally only one or two colors, no more. Throwups are either quickly done bubble letters or very simple pieces using only two colors.
TOY-An inexperienced or incompetent writer. Someone whose writing is either wack, who uses sucker tips, or whose style is just plain cheesy. One old definition of “TOYS” is that it stands for “trouble on your system”.
UP-Describes a writer whose work appears regularly everywhere and who is currently writing.
UPS-Refers to people’s tags, for example, “So and so’s crew has mad ups on main street”
WACK-Substandard or incorrect (derived from “out of whack”). Anything that looks cheesy or weak. Badly formed letters, incompetent fills, dumb tags, etc.
WILDSTYLE-A complicated construction of interlocking letters. A hard style that consists of lots of arrows and connections. Wildstyle is considered one of the hardest styles to master and pieces done in wildstyle are often completely undecipherable to non-writers.
WRITER-Practitioner of the art of graffiti.
February 2, 2010 at 2:13 pm |
Wow. who knew there was an entire vocabulary devoted to just graffiti. Does this effect your essential question? Can art be defined by the words we use to described it?