You've seen their work, you've known their history, now you should know how they speak!
Graffiti artists, or 'writers', usually use some slang words to talk about certain things without other people knowing. But as the culture of graffiti spreads throughout the world, these slang words became popular and is used by many writers around the world.
All-city: When a writer or crew successfully paints a lot or even all major walls and subway lines in the city. When the writer or a crew does this, he/she/they gain fame quickly in the writer's community.
Battle: A competition between two writers or crews to clear up a dispute, such as who is the better writer, who uses better colors, etc. Battles usually include competitions on who bombs the wider area, or who creates the most creative and stylish piece. The spoils and penalties in a battle varies, depending on the agreement between both parties.
Beef: Nope, it's not THAT beef. It's when two or more writers or crews disagree on something.
Bench: A bench is a subway station where writers meet up and watch trains. These train cars can soon fall victim of these writers. By the way, when writers decide to congregate and watch trains, it's called 'benching'.
Bite: Ever heard about plagiarism? When an inexperienced writer copies another writer's style, it's called biting in the graffiti world. People really look down on writers who bite.
Bomb: Prolific writing on a wall or a train car, when a writer covers up the entire area with his/her tags or paintings.
Burner: A technically well done graffiti painting, done in bright colors.
Crew: An organized group of writers who likes to meet up and bomb together. When writing, they put the name of the crew and sometimes, the name of the crew members.
Crossing out: The act of bombing or scribbling over another writer's painting. It's considered highly disrespectful.
Fanzine: A magazine created by fans of a group, a band, or other interests. In the graffiti world, fanzines, also called 'zines' for short, focus on info regarding famous writers, new techniques, events, etc.
King: As you may have guessed, a writer is called a king if he has reached a great accomplishment in the graffiti world, or is acknowledged by other writers as one of the best in a specific category, such as use of colors, techniques, etc.
Piece: A graffiti painting. Writers agree that a painting has to have 3 colors on it to be called a piece.
Mural: A large scale painting done on a wall, usually covering the entire wall.
Tag: A writer's signature, usually written near their work. Although it's usually placed near a writer's work so that people will know who made the piece, some people just create tags for fun. These people are called taggers.
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