A number of words and phrases that have come to describe different styles and aspects of graffiti and its subculture. Like other jargon and colloquialisms, some of these terms may vary regionally, taking on different meanings across different cities and countries. The following terminology originates primarily in the United States.
A–D angels Famous or respected graffitist who has died. The people who admire them tag their names on a wall with halos above them or make tribute pieces with their faces or tag with the dates of their birth to death.
anti style A form of graffiti that deliberately flouts graffiti norms; also called ignorant style or hipster style.
all city To mark surfaces with graffiti throughout the entirety of a given city, usually with aerosol paint, and to be widely recognized for these efforts.
autorack Type of freight rail car that is tall, long, low, and flat.
back-to-back Graffiti that covers a wall from end-to-end, as seen on some parts of the West-Berlin side of the Berlin Wall. Similarly, trains sometimes receive end-to-end painting when a carriage has been painted along its entire length. This is often abbreviated as e2e. End-to-ends used to be called window-downs but this is an older expression that is falling from popularity.
backjump A quickly executed throw up or panel piece. Backjumps are usually painted on a train or a bus that is temporarily stationary. Backjumps at a train station occur when a train arrives at a station and then while it is temporarily stopped for passengers a tagger then moves over to the train and attempts to tag the side of it before it moves away again. This can be very dangerous as it involves being around moving trains on train lines and collisions with trains have occurred where people have died. The word "backjump" refers to people jumping off the train once it is stationary at a train station and then returning to the same train to create graffiti.
bencher An individual who takes photographs of graffiti. The term originated in New York when graffiti writers and non-graffiti writers would sit on benches at train stations waiting for the trains to go by to take pictures and admire graffiti.
black book A graffiti artist's sketchbook, which is also known as a "piece book." Black books are often used to sketch out and plan potential graffiti, and to collect tags from other writers. These are a writer's most valuable property since they contain all or a majority of the person's sketches and pieces. A writer's sketchbook is carefully guarded against the police and other authorities, as it can be used as material evidence in a graffiti vandalism case and link a writer to previous illicit works."The participants, who didn't keep the traditional type of graffiti black book, still had a sketchbook and a photo album that documented and preserved the ephemeral nature of their graffiti paintings." Rahn, Janice. Painting Without Permission: Hip-Hop Graffiti Subculture, Westport: Greenwood, 2002. (p. 205)
blockbuster A large graffiti with simple, legible letters. Often painted by a brush or a roller.
bite To steal another graffitist's ideas, name, lettering or color schemes. Seasoned graffitists will often complain about toys that bite their work.Subway Art, Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, p27. Henry Holt and Company, 1984. .
bomb To bomb or hit is to paint many surfaces in an area. Bombers often choose to paint throw-ups or tags instead of complex pieces, as they can be executed more quickly."Graffitists' slang ... Bomb: To apply graffiti intensively to a location ... Hit: To tag or bomb a surface" Whitford, M. J. Getting Rid of Graffiti: A Practical Guide to Graffiti Removal, London: Taylor & Francis, 1992. (p. 1)
bulls Security patrolling an area on the lookout for any on-the-whim individuals.
buff To remove painted graffiti with chemicals and other instruments, or to paint over it with a flat color.
burn To beat a competitor with a style. To rat out an accomplice or crime partner either intentionally or unintentionally.
burner 1. A large, more elaborate type of piece. The piece could be said to be "burning" out of the wall, billboard, or train-side. Because they take so much time and effort, burners in downtown areas are more likely to be legal pieces, painted with the consent of the property owner. The early writers of New York City also did burners illegally on trains, and adventurous modern writers sometimes still do large-scale illegal pieces in heavily trafficked areas."Burner: A great piece" Whitford (p. 1) 2. Originally a well-done wildstyle window-down whole car, a burner is a very good piece with bright colors and good style. Obviously, the reference to a window-down car is not applicable for pieces that are not on trains.
burning Any work having not been removed. "That piece is still burning on main street."
cannon(s) A slang term for spray paint cans. This term is thought to originate in Brooklyn, New York.
cap 1. The nozzle for the aerosol paint can, also referred to as "tips." Different kinds are used for different styles. New York Thins, Rustos, and New York Fats are the most commonly used caps. 2. To slash or in any other way ruin a piece made by others. Derives from a writer named "Cap" who was infamous for making throw-ups over others' pieces.
clown or ass-clown, goof or goof ball Any writer who is extremely careless to get himself caught and arrested, especially with observant citizens and even the police watching the writer in the act.
character In the context of graffiti, individual writers may have unique characters they draw which work in the same way as their moniker.
crew
A crew, krew, or cru is a group of associated graffitists that often work together. Crews are differentiated from gangs in that their main objective is to paint graffiti, although gang-like activity may occur. Matthew O'Deane (formerly of San Diego District Attorney Investigators Foundation) described in 2016, taggers have become more violent and gang-like than in the earlier times. Any group of friends can quickly and informally form a crew if they are interested in graffiti and want to start conspiring. Often crews will recruit new members over time in order to maintain their relevance. There is a smaller risk of being held responsible for crew works if a single member gets arrested. From a legal point of view, the name could have been painted by anyone in the group. Tagging crew names are usually three letters, but can be two to five letters long. The letters are abbreviations of the full crew name. Numbers in crew name can be derived from many things such as the alphabet sequence (1=A, 2=B, 3= C....), telephone keypad numbers (2=A, B, or C; 3=D, E or F), area codes, or penal codes or a combination of these.
Dog UK term for going over or dissing someone's tag or piece.
Domming A color-mixing technique done by spraying one color over another while it is still wet, then rubbing the two together. Sometimes an abrasive like sand is used to create different effects. The term is derived from "condom," as a reference to its synonym rubber and is sometimes called fingering, as it is commonly done with one's fingers.
Dropsy A bribe.
dress-up To completely write all over a specific area like a door-way, wall or window that is untouched.
dubs London/UK style of graffiti executed in silver or chrome paint. Usually, on railway walls or street locations, it is done quickly by a crew or group of writers.
E–K end-to-end (...) The opposite of top-to-bottom – meaning a train-car covered with paint from one side of it to the other. Used as an adjective and non-commonly as a noun."End to end: A piece covering the entire length of a train carriage." Mcdonald, Nancy. The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
etch The use of acid solutions intended for creating frosted glass, such as Etch Bath, to write on windows. In Norway, some trains have even been taken temporarily out of service because of the acid tagging, which is potentially dangerous for other people's health.Aftenposten.no, Norwegian newspaper article about acid tagging (foreign language)
fat cap A nozzle used for wide coverage; while practical for quickly applying fill colors, most are also useful for thick outlines as well as lettering. When used for lettering, most fat caps can produce a characteristic flare by increasing the distance between the can and the canvas mid-spray.
fills or fill ins A piece of graffiti that is either filled in a rush or a solid fill, also referred to as bombs, throw ups, or throwies. A fill is also the interior base color of the piece of graffiti.
fire extinguisher A fire extinguisher that has been filled with diluted paint (typically of the latex variety) for the purpose of utilizing the pressurized paint to quickly produce large tags. Due to decreased control one has over the application of paint when using this method, it tends to result in a sloppier, far less polished look. While tags are the most common use for this technique, throwups are not unheard of.
gallery, also yard Locations such as overpasses and walls facing train tracks that are secluded from the general public but are popular with writers. Since anything that is written is likely to stay for a while, an accumulation of styles and skills can be viewed.
genocidal Any municipality that has zero tolerance for vigilante street art or unapproved written messages and will not hesitate to buff anything detected.
German Montana A specialty brand of paint marketed for graffiti. Not to be confused with the older Spanish brand, Montana Colors.
getting up To develop your reputation or "rep" through writing graffiti. (see King).
ghost The mark left after paint or ink has been unsuccessfully buffed.
going over To "go over" a piece of graffiti simply means to paint on top of it. While most writers respect one another's artwork, to intentionally and disrespectfully paint on top of another's work is akin to a graffiti declaration of war. However (due partially to the limited amount of desirable wall-space) most graffiti writers maintain a hierarchy of sorts; a tag can legitimately be covered by a throw-up, and a throw-up by a piece, and this is commonly done without incident. If a piece has previously been slashed (or "dissed"), it is also acceptable for another writer to go over it. To violate these guidelines, or to simply paint lower-quality graffiti on top of a higher-quality work will quickly characterize a writer as an annoyance, or "toy." This is dangerous as most crews and writers will react with physical violence or by repeatedly going over writers not respecting their self-claimed rank in the hierarchy.
graf A small graffiti work, usually a drawing rather than words or numbers.
hat (honor-among-thieves) A person who is described as wearing a "hat" is a graffitist who is considered trustworthy in the graffiti community. A person who knows a lot of information about other graffitists but does not spread such knowledge to the authorities. "Don't worry about him, he wears a dope hat."
head 1 Similar to a king or queen, a "head" is a writer who has much skill and a high reputation among other writers in his area. 2 Also "O.G. Head" (for Original, or Original Gangsta).
heaven spots