My Name in Graffiti Style Lettering
My Name in Graffiti Style Lettering
Graffiti
Attraction
Propelled by new media forms and the expanding popularity of hip hop music, graffiti is suddenly reappearing in art galleries and commercial settings and captivating a new generation adolescents from all races, social classes, and nations.
But while graffiti's public visibility has waxed and waned over the last three decades, its attraction to urban youth has remained relatively consistent, especially among the poor Black and Latino teens, predominately male, who continue to constitute its core constituency in the U.S.
[ My Name in Graffiti Style Lettering ]
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How does one account for this
appeal? What has drawn thousands of
adolescents to graffiti over the years?
The general public perceives writers as
"just a bunch of little bastards who want
to deface property," and many certainly
use graffiti as a way to rebel, to lash
out, and to destroy. But graffiti writing
satisfies a complex set of needs,
functioning for most participants as a
furious but relatively benign antidote to
adolescent isolation, boredom, powerless,
and anonymity-the same experiences that
draw many urban kids to gangs.
Writers
often cite their desire to bond with siblings
or to "keep occupied." Pioneering writer Flint
707 saw graffiti as a challenge, growing up in
Brooklyn in the early 1970's as "a pure
daredevil" who sought "experiences that could
heel [sic] the social scars and wounds found
deep within the city's clusters of ethnic
neighborhoods." He involved himself in
neighborhood games and salsa dancing to keep
out of trouble, but "there was always an urge
to do more, to dare mighty things and to
achieve great conquests." His peer Vulcan
recalls similar motives: "I did it for the
thrill. You like to be able to say, I can do
this and you can't catch me."
[ My Name in Graffiti Style Lettering ]
Graffiti also offers adolescents a cherished opportunity to proclaim themselves to the world. Ernest Abel and Barbara Buckley contend that graffiti markings have historically been "announcements of one's identity, a kind of personal testimonial to one's existence . . . scratched, carved, or painted onto some surface seemingly for the purpose of leaving one's mark."
Such imprints, they point out, have traditionally been the preoccupation of adolescents from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those with the least power and voice within society and the group most attracted to graffiti. The early writers support these assertions. Tagging, Phase 2 insists, was for many disadvantaged urban teens "the only significant vehicle to represent their 'existence.'" A tag filled the "expression void" encountered by urban teens, according to Tasar 32.
[ My Name in Graffiti Style Lettering ]
"In its simplest form, a name on a vacant building signifies that 'yes, I am here. I do interact with society and I do matter.'" For II Crusher, graffiti was simply "the ultimate self-expression." A graffiti declaration often brings respect and fame as well as a sense of identity. Kaves describes how "the recognition for a kid coming up was crazy. Everybody in the neighborhood knew who I was." In the end, however it is approval of other writers that most matters to the writers. Phase 2 insists that they put their name up in the most visible, public sites, not out of a desire to vandalize, but "to please each other, with the ultimate gratification being the accolades from those other writers who, more than anyone else, knew what was appreciated and considered the ultimate."