Are Graffiti Artists Cowards?

Over the years graffiti just about every aspect of graffiti has changed. Everything from the surfaces we paint, how we paint, what we paint, and even the paint itself has changed, but one aspect has always been constant, and that’s the desire to “Get Up”. Today we’re going to ask the question of weather or not graffiti artists have gotten soft over the years. Is the new generation too afraid to really get up? We actually answer this question in today’s new video, check it out above, "Are Graffiti Artists Cowards Now?”.

Back in the NY days of graffiti things might have begun small with tags on trains but quickly evolved into these elaborate pieces that span the whole train surface. This type of work took plenty of time, and was very risky to do, not only from a legal standpoint but from a pure safety standpoint as well. On the other hand, in these early days security was low, and while it was still legally risky, it wasn’t nearly as risky as it would soon become. After graffiti had taken a foothold on the NY subways, the vandal squad was made. This special task force was specifically created to monitor, track, and hunt down graffiti artists and they were good at it too. As if that wasn’t enough, by this point the stations themselves took steps to safeguard the trains by adding layers of fences, and even guard dogs and patrols too. Suddenly, the ease of simply walking up to a train and painting was gone, and now the legal risk skyrocketed, as did the safety risk. To get up on trains back then took an extreme amount of courage, and only the writers with real backbones were able to effectively get up on trains.

Once the trains were too risky to tag, writers moved to walls, and other less protected surfaces as a dominant focus. These other areas were still risky in many cases, make no mistake, but depending on the spots, some were pretty relaxed as well and this gave writers options. Now, you could pick your poison, do you want to go for something high risk with high reward, or would you rather take a day to hang out and kick back with some friends while you paint? People focused on getting their name up as much as possible often times picked the riskier spots as these led to the most eyes seeing their work. If you hit a billboard or a main street, then countless people will see your name, however, if you hit some random abandoned building or under a lost bridge then only a small number of writers will see it. When hitting these spots, the only security you had to deal with was whoever would happen to show up while you were painting, but there was no more vandal squad. Some spots came with extra safety risks and security but this wasn’t the standard anymore since just about any surface was a viable target now. Due to this, graffiti became much easier than it had been in NY, and that’s mostly due to the wider scope of graffiti artists now.

Nowadays, this is still very much the case, however, in the digital age we have security cameras on just about every street corner, and everyone has a phone in their hand. In the 80s, 90s, and even early 2000s, you didn’t have to worry about someone snapping a random photo of you, or recording you while you caught a spot on a wall. Now just about every civilian is a potential security camera. Now when it comes to the risk factors of today, the safety risks stayed about the same from the times after trains, but the legal risks have skyrocketed! To make matters even worse, social media is a huge concern. Graffiti artists are all about bragging, and showing off, it’s how, and why they get their names known after all. Writers are ecstatic to document their crimes, and even more glad to post it online to share with everyone, including the police. The amount of writers that get caught for what they have posted is astounding, but even if the posts don’t get them caught, they can, and have, been used against the writer to charge them for more and more crimes. However, there is a payoff, a reason, writers are so willing to share their crimes. Due to the reach of social media, you can suddenly hit any spot and it has the potential to get hundreds, thousands, or millions of eyes on it. Since the whole goal of graffiti is fame, and getting people to know and see your name, this is a no-brainer. Also, the risk of posting never feels like you’re putting yourself directly in danger, as to where hiding from cops, or almost getting hit by a train certainly does. It’s easy to post a tag on a random simple spot and forget about it, but going out to climb onto a billboard or other dangerous areas is much harder. Difficult missions like these are still done by the truly dedicated, but the average writers simply won’t take the risk, what need is there for them when, in their eyes, they can get more fame for posting a tag on a hidden wall. On the other hand, those willing to take the risk get an amplified magnitude of fame simply because the spot will get media and social media coverage, so high risk is still worth it.

In short, I think the landscape of graffiti has changed, changed in a way where taking huge risks isn’t as necessary for fame, but taking huge risks can have a much larger impact. Those who are more passive with their graffiti will never take the risk, this is no different than the writers who stopped hitting trains once the vandal squad was introduced. You’ll always have this trade-off between risk. and reward, and there have always been, and will always be those who take the risks, and those who don’t. For that reason, I don’t think writers are more, or less cowardly than in the past, but instead, we have more people doing graffiti than ever before. With this influx, it seems people are more cowardly because the amount of passive writers has increased, but the amount of dedicated hardcore writers has also increased so in the end it balances out.

Now for anyone new to graffiti and looking to learn the basics of graffiti then check out our brand new book The Ultimate Graffiti Guide Book Part 1-Fundamentals. Here you’ll learn all of graffiti’s basics in an easy-to-follow book. By the end of it you’ll fully understand how to find your style, and how to keep progressing for the rest of your graffiti journey.