The Words: A Graffiti Glossary
also in Japanese! and a new one:
translated by Takuya Hiramoto
Slapped together by
Chad with help from Schmoo. Thanks to RaskeL & Celtic (for info on homemades and Griffin shoe dye),
Eros (for old-skool NYC/subway info) and
Subway Art by Henry Chalfant for basic info
and references. Note that this list is quite dated and somewhat NYC-centric. So terms in use in your area may well be different. A newer glossary has been compiled by 149th Street.
the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls"--Simon and
GarFUNKel, The Sounds of Silence
An effort has been made to keep to some of the history of each word, its
origins and its current application to graffiti culture.
- ALL CITY
- What a writer is considered to be when he/she is "up", but this
term implies more status than being just "up". Many people can be "up",
but only a select few could be considered "all city". Can also refer
to a crew instead of just one writer.
- BACK IN THE DAY
- Refers to the "old days", old school, or when a writer first
started writing. Also a hip-hop/rap term.
- 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.
- BACK TO BACK
- A wall that is pieced from end to end all the way across. Also can refer to
throwups that are one after another.
- This is done when two writers or two crews have some sort of disagreement.
The battle can take two forms: skills battle or getting up - essentially quality
vs. quantity. A skills battle is when two writers piece a wall within a certain
time period (usually a day or a few hours) and whoever does the best piece is
the winner. A getting-up battle is when the writers take a certain area of a
city and whichever crew can get up the most in that area within a certain amount
of time (say a week to a month), wins. For both kinds of battle, an outside crew
or writer judges who is the winner. The terms of losing and winning are usually
negotiated by the crews involved and can be payment in paint, pot, a sock in the
jaw, the losing crew has to stop writing their name, etc., etc.
- To copy another writer's style. This is considered a no-no and is looked
down upon, even though writers often borrow imagery from cartoons and comics.
- Big, square letters, often tilted back and forth and in (usually) two
colors. Mainly invented to cover over other people and to paint whole trains
easily, but they are effective on smaller walls for maximum coverage. Blade and
Comet claim to have invented these.
- Train line in NY that had only ridgys and ding-dongs (except for the As and
- Prolific painting or marking with ink. To cover an area with your tag,
- 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
- 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.
- To beat the competition with your style. Also refers to a really good
piece, as in one that "burns".
- 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
- 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.
- A cartoon figure (usually, but not
necessarily) taken from comic books, TV or popular culture to add humor or
emphasis to a piece. In some pieces, the character takes the place of a
letter in the word.
- CHINA MARKER
- A type of grease pencil used by artists to mark up contact sheets of photos
or the photos themselves for cropping. They come in red and blue, and were
adopted by writers for tagging because of the grease base. China markers are not
very big, only as big as a crayon, but will write on almost anything.
- 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".
- COMPUTER STYLE
- A certain style of wildstyle that looks digital or bitmapped, as if it came
out of a computer.
- It means crazy in the dictionary definition but can also mean "really"
as in "crazy big".
- 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.
- Chicago Transit Authority.
- CUTTING TIPS
- A way to cut standard tips, thus modifying them into fat caps or flare
- CUTTING LINES
- A painting technique used on inside fills of letters and characters to get
thin lines, thinner than thin tips.
- To insult. Comes from "disrespect". Originally it was just a
hip-hop/rap term but has found its way into the culture at large. Hey, even my
mom says it! See "front".
- Really good, (derived from "death"). In its day it had as much
use in the hip-hop scene as in the graffiti scene. Not in use as much anymore,
in some circles its use is considered downright cheesy. I'm all for bringing it
- Relatively new stainless type of subway car, so named for the bell that
rings just before the doors close. Ding-dongs were preferred because they were
so flat. They were a quick buff so no one did any full-scale pieces on
- Originally a rap/hip-hop term that means "cool".
- 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.
- 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.
- To blend/blended colors.
- 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
- A fan magazine devoted to a narrow interest. Often shortened to "zine" In the graff scene, fanzines
would obviously be devoted to writing, featuring photos of pieces, etc. The
first graffiti fanzine was "International Graffiti Times" started by
Phase 2. Nowadays there are many fanzines such as
Can Control, Skills, Crazy Kings, and many others.
- FAN SPRAY
- A newer type of stock tip on spraypaint cans (used to be only on cheaper
brands but almost every company, including Krylon, now sport these on at least
one line of their paint) which sprays in a fan pattern that can be adjusted from
vertical to horizontal, but is useless for tagging because it looks wack. May be
used for fills but the cheezy tips prevent any kind of detailed can control. The
tip is not removable for insertion of fat caps.
- Can refer to something being thick, as a "fat line", or can be a
general term of good, like "yo, that's fat!" Often spelled "phat".
- FEMALE TIPS
- A new type of tip that is called "female" because the can has a "male"
counterpart. Traditional cans are vice versa. These female tipped cans are no
good for writers, except maybe for fills, but even that's questionable.
- The solid interior color of letters on a piece or throwup.
- 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.
- Prints of photos of graffiti. Also "flick" (singular) and "flix"
- Cool, same as "fresh". Early hip-hop term.
- New, cool, good. An early hip-hop term.
- TO FRONT
- To hassle someone, to want to fight. For example, "You frontin' on me?"
Also a hip-hop/rap term. Probably comes from "confront".
- 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".
- GREASE PENCIL
- See "china marker".
- A type of shoe dye used in homemade markers.
- GROCERY STORE INK
- A kind of purple ink used by grocery stores in their marking guns. Writers
took this ink to put in their homemades and refillable markers. Writers from
back in the day swear by it because of its permanence.
- HIP HOP
- The culture in the late 70s and early 80s that spawned the graffiti culture
as we know it now, breakdancing and hip-hop music, which has since turned into
modern rap music.
- To tag up any surface with paint or ink.
- HIT UP
- When something is covered with tags.
- 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
- 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.
- ICY GRAPE
- An old, discontinued Krylon color that is prized by writers when the odd
can turns up.
- Originally referred to tagging the insides of subway trains. Now refers to
the insides of any mass transit vehicle. For example, "He's the king of
insides" would mean he's really up on the insides.
- A train line in NY that had many burners because its cars were all flats.
- JUNGLE GREEN
- Another old, now discontinued Krylon color that writers go crazy over.
- Same as "character".
- To hit or bomb excessively. To really get up in a major way.
- 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.
- A brand of spraypaint, easily recognized by the distinctive 5-spot logo.
Most favored by writers because of its large color selection and cheap price.
- Side tracks where trains are parked overnight and on weekends. Initally
used to refer to subway layups, but now can refer to freight-train layups.
- Crazy, lots.
- A type of fat marker used by writers, not refillable.
- Standard black magic marker with a tip about a quarter-inch wide. Had its
place in the early days of writing (early to mid 70s) but has been discarded in
favor of bigger, better markers and spraypaint.
- MARRIED COUPLE
- Two cars permanently attached, identified by their consecutive numbers.
This is an older subway term from New York.
- MEAN STREAK
- A type of paint stick made by the Sanford corporation. Writers like it
because it is opaque, waterproof, and is generally a bitch to buff because the
base solvent is ethyl glycol. Comes in white, blue, red and yellow. I've never
seen black or green.
- Metropolitan Transit Authority. (NYC)
- 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
- 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.
- 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 final outline done
around the piece to finish it.
- PANEL PIECE
- A painting below the windows and between the doors of a subway car.
- 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.
- 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
- A type of fat marker. Prized because it writes wider than a Marks-A-Lot and
is made to be refilled.
- Respect, comes from "proper respect". From hip-hop/rap.
- 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.
- Subway car with corrugated, stainless steel sides, unsuitable for graffiti.
Writers did mainly two-color throwups and some top-to-bottom throwups (one color
and silver because silver was hard to buff) on these types of cars. Ridgys ran
- 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
- RED DEVIL
- A favorite brand of spraypaint that was quite popular back in the day, but
now has wack fan spray for tips.
- A brand of spraypaint, generally more expensive than Krylon.
- 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.
- A certain type of throwup (usually two colors) that is filled very quickly
with back-and-forth lines, rather than filled in solid.
- A type of big marker made by Sakura which is a little bigger than a Pilot,
and it too is easily refillable, although it does not state that on the outside.
Sakura makes a model the same size called "Pentouch" which is a huge
paint marker, complete with a mixing ball inside of it.
- SHOE DYE
- Shoe dye kits are used sometimes for tagging, especially those that consist
of a bottle with a brush/sponge device attached. They usually come in black and
white. See "Griffin".
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- THIRD RAIL
- On New York subway lines, this is the extra rail that supplies the power
for the trains. If you touch the 3rd rail, you will most likely die.
- A three-dimensional style of letters, used for added effect on basic
letters, sometimes applied to wildstyle for an extra level of complexity. This
style was invented by Phase 2.
- 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.
- TOP TO BOTTOM
- A piece that extends from the top of the car to the bottom, completely
covering it. Can also refer to a wall or building that has been pieced from top
to bottom. The first top-to-bottom car was done in 1975 by Hondo. Dead Leg did
the first top to bottom with a cloud. Others who started rocking the style, and
were known for the "T2B's" were Lee, Chain, the Fab5, and later,
- 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
- A type of marker that is extra wide (about an inch and a half), intended
for making posters, etc. It too is easily refillable. Often called "Uni-Wide",
which is a brand name.
- Describes a writer whose work appears regularly everywhere and who is
- Refers to people's tags, for example, "So and so's crew has mad ups on
- A paint preferred by taggers because it sticks to things better than glossy
- Substandard or incorrect (derived from "out of whack"). Anything
that looks cheesy or weak. Badly formed letters, incompetent fills, dumb tags,
- WET LOOK
- No, it's not Jheri Curl, it's an old-school brand of spraypaint. No longer
in production to my knowledge.
- 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.
- WINDOW DOWN
- A piece done below the windows of a subway
- WHITE TRAINS
- In '83 they started running the white trains on the 6's. Writers loved
these cars because they were like canvas all primed and ready to paint.
- WHOLE CAR
- Obviously a piece covering a
whole car. See "top to bottom".
This one's by Futura 2000.
- WHOLE TRAIN
- The masterful feat of covering a whole train with pieces. Two whole trains
were done in 1976 by Caine I and two more were done by The Fabulous Five soon
- Practitioner of the art of graffiti.
Art Crimes Front Page