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Tagging
It began in the late 1960s with Taki 183 who wrote his name all over New York city, in public places. Other people started doing it too. It became all about having your name all over NYC. -
First stencil graffiti in NYC
John Fekner was the first graffiti artist to take stencil graffiti outdoors. It said: "Wheels over indian trails" and greeted international visitors visiting New York. -
Bombing and bubble letters
Writers would "bomb" trains with their work, lettng it take it through the city. Their names would usually be written with bubble letters. To "bomb" meant to graffiti all over other graffiti artists work. -
Taki 183
In 1971 Taki 183 began to be recognized by the outside world. He even made it onto The New York Times in 1971. -
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New styles
New styles have been developed. Throw ups, writing tags in larger scales with color. It became a competition on skills and who could get their name in/on most subways. Graffiti became more artistic in some way with the growing amount of murals seen on public walls. -
War against graffiti
The mayor of New York, John Lindsay, declares war on graffiti in 1972. In over just seventeen years on the war on graffiti there would be spent over three hundred milllion dollars on keeping the trains graffiti-free, but the war on graffiti was endless. -
Murals
Tracy 168, CLIFF 159, and BLADE ONE started creating works with more than their names. They made illustrations with a lot of color, scenery, and cartoon characters on. These pieces were found on walls all over NYC. They started the mural-movement. -
Wildstyle
A new style created by Tracy 168 and a crew with over 500 members. It was called wildstyle and replaced bubble letters. Wildstyle was very detailed and hard to read by outsiders. But that wasn't the intetion, only other writers had to recognize the tag. -
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The buff
The times were tough. The mayor had made it hard to find a location to write, so "toys" would destroy other writers works to make room for their own pieces. -
Competition
The competition was tough. You had to go to the extrenme to become king. In the summer of 1980 the competition between crews reached its fever pitch. They did graffiti on married couples to be recognized. -
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Diehard era
1985-1989 is known as the "diehard era". This was the writers last chance to bomb the subways that were destined to end up in the scrap yard. The last graffiti covered subway would be out by 1989. -
Anti-Graffiti Task Force
In New York in 1995, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani set up the Anti-Graffiti Task Force.
