Contribute to a graffiti map & learn about street art
Add your favorite graffiti to a crowdsource map—and explore some graffiti history.
Graffiti runs the gamut from crude, spray-painted markings to sophisticated public art. Here we celebrate street art as a global phenomenon and an expression of the irresistible human urge to create. We invite you to add images of your favorite street art to our map, and to learn about the tools, evolution, and terminology of this vibrant art form.
1 - CONTRIBUTE
If you enjoy beautiful street art, please share your favorites.
Art submissions from streets around the world
Here's a crowdsourced map of street art around the world. You can add to the map by locating your graffiti image, adding it to the form, and describing it.
Submit your street art photo here:
2 - LEARN about graffiti
Tools of the Trade
The earliest graffiti writers used regular markers —the kind that kids could take from home to school—to mark up train and bus interiors. When writers moved to the exteriors of trains, spray paint became the essential tool. Everything was DIY, from stealing paint to repurposing nozzles in order to widen the spray area of aerosol paint cans. Preferred brands were Krylon (wider color range), Red Devil (minimal drips), and Rust-Oleum (ability to cover large areas).
These days if you want to acquire spray paint, you need to be 18, show identification, and get a store clerk to open up the cage within which the aerosol paint is locked.
A number of writers, including Lady Pink and Chris “DAZE” Ellis, were students enrolled at the High School of Art and Design. They learned in class how professional artists work, and would take some of their knowledge back out onto the street, where they would influence their fellow writers. Graffiti artists began using black books to sketch out their work and collect autographs from fellow writers. Black books are hardcover sketchbooks that are standard in every professional artist’s toolkit.
Black book as used by a student at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lettering and the Evolution of Style
Among the earliest graffiti tags that appeared in subways in the late 1960s was "Taki 183" written in black magic marker. Taki was the nickname of a Greek-American kid in Washington Heights whose real name is Demetrius. 183 refers to the number of the street where he lived. In the beginning, graffiti was solely an act of signing one’s pseudonym—often followed by a street number—on public property.
Lady Pink explained to me that each writer’s signature (tag) could identify them to other writers, whether they were amateurs or masters, and even what neighborhood they were from. “It takes years to master your region and then find your individual style within that community,” she said. “My signature says I am a 1980s queen.” When I asked her what differentiated one signature from the next, she said it’s how you curve a letter (like the “k” in Pink), what flourishes you do on top. It's the nuances, she said. She also told me it is really bad if you are found copying someone else’s signature style.
Graffiti began to evolve when writers began going into the yards where trains were stored and working on their exteriors. Artists placed greater emphasis on letterforms and styles. Throughout the 1970s designs became more and more elaborate and colorful. It was as much about your style as it was about how often you were "getting up" (tagging).
Landmark style developments
1972 – A graffiti artist called PHASE 2 invented bubble letters.
Mid-1970s – Tracy 168 invented wildstyle, a complex font with interlaced letters incorporating arrows, curls, and other flourishes. Writers no longer cared if “outsiders” understood their tags. They were doing graffiti solely for each other. Only writers knew each other’s work.
1975 – Blade’s overlapping 3D letters and geometric forms first appeared on trains coming from the Bronx, covering whole cars. Blade (real name Steven D. Ogburn) painted over 5,000 trains between 1972 and the early 1980s, and is the proud owner of the title King of Graffiti.
As writers began painting whole subway cars, they introduced characters they identified with. Illustrator Vaughn Bode’s images, published primarily in underground humor and science fiction magazines, were a big influence, as were video games as well as Stan Lee’s New York City comic book heroes like Luke Cage.
A graffiti Glossary
All City – During the days of painting subway cars in New York, this meant being known for one's graffiti throughout a city.
Black book - A graffiti writer's sketchbook. Used to sketch out and plan potential pieces, and to collect tags from other writers.
Bombing – Going out and doing illegal graffiti.
Buff – To remove graffiti with chemicals or to paint over with white paint.
Crew – Loosely-organized group of graffiti or street art artists that work together. Based on friendship and loyalty.
Getting Up - To develop your reputation by doing graffiti. (see King)
Hitting – Getting your signature up and around a lot of places.
King or Queen – The greatest accomplishment for a graffitist. The best, most visible on a line or in NYC. It meant serious respect among other writers.
Layup – The tracks where the MTA takes trains when out of service for maintenance and cleaning. Place where people put up graffiti.
Mural – Large-scale paintings done by individual artist or a collective on a wall, either legally or illegally.
Piece – Shorthand for masterpiece. Large, complex, multicolored, and often incorporating various effects. Covers half or more of a subway car. Takes hours to create, and because illegal, must be executed as quickly as possible. Thus the difficulty of location and how well it's executed can earn the writer more respect. Very rarely seen in New York City since the 1980s.
Tag – A graffiti artist’s personalized signature or branding. Most often the writer’s pseudonym. Announcing their existence. Normally done quickly and in one color. Can also mean to sign one’s artwork. During 1970s and 80s found all over insides of New York subway cars.
Throw-Ups – Writing one’s name or abbreviation of name (in two or three letters) in bubble-shaped letters. Can be done in minutes, so easy to get up more places and attract attention to the writer. One-color outline filling in with a contrasting color.
Toy – An apprentice or a writer who is unskilled.
Whole car - A solo or collaborative piece that covers the entire visible surface of one side of a train car. Normally done by a crew.
Wild Style – A complex, super stylized, often unreadable lettering style.
Window down – Graffiti that has been painted below the window borders, almost always covering the whole length of a train car.
Writer - A practitioner of graffiti.
Take a tour of New York City's vibrant street art scene:
