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R.I.P. PAGE NEXT |
~ Hand Style ~ What is in a name? Everything! How a name is written however, is even more important. Hand writing is the first step in becoming a Graffiti writer. Writers put in much time and pride into there tags. Writers developed there tag, to stand out from others due to the competition. In time, a writers tag became a label of who they were, and who they are today.
STAY HIGH 149 - The smoker came from a famous TV show from the 1960's. I took that saint figure, turned him in the opposite direction and added a smoking joint. Its been mine ever since!
LSD 3 / LSD OM - I got my signature style from STAY HIGH 149 and DEAD LEG 167. I used the arrow from STAY HIGH's "S", then took DEAD LEG'S "D" and "L", added it and made my own style.
BOM5 / BOMOO5 - I had mad love for tagging! When I was done doing the outsides, I would take out a floated marker and blast the insides. If there was no room in the insides, I would go over everybody with a UNI, or a NIJI marker.
ROGER - I always took a lot of pride in my tag and could never stop doing it, even to this day. Recently, I was riding the train one day after work, in an empty car, when I pulled out a UNI-WIDE marker and caught a tag for old times sake.
PUFF 167 - In 1972, I spent days and nights hitting the Broadway line with CRAZY CROSS 137, KOTEX 135, and ACE 137. They were great forgotten writer's who tagged in my era.
ED101 - I think SPIN 1 had the best tag style of all time! I remember seeing a clean 7 train with about 25 hits in the inside by SPIN, and no other tags in site. That day I knew I wanted to be a writer.
SPIN 1 and KING KOOL 156 (Number 5 train, 1973) DANGER 59 - I can still recall the first names I saw up in the early days, and one was FLINT. What was really special about him, was that he always had a message at the end of his tags (for example, FOR LADIES ONLY and FOR THOSE WHO DARE). That made him stand out from the rest.
DEMO TPA - I remember a time when I met LEE 3 on the 7 train. When I approached him to ask what he wrote, LEE told me his tag and that he was a member of the TPA crew and that DEMO put him down (which, was bull shit). I grabbed the marker from his hand and caught a DEMO tag right in front of him.
GEN2 / FREEDOM - MALTA from the SOUL ARTIST had an incredible hand style. He had this mystique to his tag, that years after he stopped writing and occasionally caught a tag, other Broadway writers were amazed to see it. MALTA had a lot of respect.
DURO / NEWSBREAKER CIA - "The name is the first foundation of being a writer, it has always been about the name".
SUR 167 - PHASE 2 had some dope hand style. I remember doing a car in the D-yard with DUTCH and GHOST; when I was leaving I spotted an old PHASE2 tag which had an old style, but so neat and perfect. At that moment, I knew this generation's style had a long way to go.
PHASE 2 IND's Style Master
KOOL KITO - Every borough had there own hand style in the early 1970's. In Brooklyn, it was a little wilder. We had more connections and added more arrows, but not many writers were able to read our style. I remember meeting SWEET DUKE 161 and PHASE 2 while bombing the lay up's, out there in Brooklyn, and when I told him what I wrote, he said "What? I caught a tag in front of them." PHASE 2 said, "That's you? I thought those where designs!"
BOM5 / BOMOO5 - My vote for all time kings would have to be BLADE and COMET! They got up all over the city with those big jiff tags. They were the first writers to kill the highways, and were all time kings of the 2's and 5's. BLADE and COMET did more pieces than any writers in history.
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MINO 2 is a former partner of REPEL and a big All-City writer in the 1970's.
ADD - 170 an original member of the number three yard boys (3yb)
LEE 163 - the first writer to add style to his name. A true subway outlaw from the Bronx.
BILLY 167 (May he rest in peace!)
BUG 170 - An early Bronx subway writer, who displays a practice that was very popular in the early 1970's, hitting the front of a subway car. |
Classic hits from A -TRAIN, STAY HIGH 149, and SUPER STRUT (Early subway killers of the 1970's)
RAID1 shows us an early Broadway tag style brought to New York from Philadelphia, by TOP CAT 126.
SCOOTER - One of the most underrated writer of the 1970's. He uses a smiley face as his logo.
Early tags by BARBARA 62, EVA 62, and CAY 161 (On a Broadway line train station)
DEAN BYB and JINX 2, two subway killers from the mid 1970's
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ED 101 - SON 1 & PRO did large connecting tags, on the blue stripe, of every subway car that passed. Those two dudes were truly PARTNERS AT LARGE.
CT 1 - TRIKE 1 a.k.a. TO, owned the insides of the E and F trains. I remember he would catch those TO tags going down the side panels of the inside of the trains and then hit every where else, with drippy TRIKE tags.
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ZEPHYR's Very Respected Hand Style
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