Fat Caps, Krylon and some basic Graffiti terms

I was in the hardware store the other day and found myself explaining to my girlfriend some things about Graffiti supplies. It's a lot more complex then people think. First off, when i was a writer, one was expected to get their paint through one of three ways. By "racking" it from a store. This meant that you went in with a puffy jacket and pants and tried to stuff as many of the rattling cans into your clothes as possible and then tried to sneak out with it. you can imagine with all the little metal balls rolling around in the cans that often the sneaking out part turned into a chase scene. (those balls were meant to help mix the paint when you shake the can...but they always gave away your coordinates too)

it got tricky as the stores caught on, they started using cages, but there were ways to take the cans through the sides if you lifted the front door a bit and made sure you didn't catch your fingers. California has crazy laws about it, check it out. Another way to get paint was to "vick" or "tax" it from other writers. This meant that you could take the paint off another writer if you caught him/them in the act in your neighborhood. You usually needed to be bigger, scarier, or outnumber other writers to do that. but every now and then you might come across a "Toy" or "poser" which meant it was easy, and they shouldn't be in the game anyways.

I know that in other cities outside of NYC that when writers bumped into each other they were generally friendly and excited to meet another artist. Not in NYC, writers beat each other down regularly. it was very competitive and there was limited space. there were often beefs relating to accidental go-overs, where a writer takes a tag or a "throw up" with big letters and inadvertently (or on purpose) went over other tags. or worse, they would put a line through your tag, that was "toying" or "crossing out". In NYC that was a BIG problem. and if you didn't stand up for yourself then your problems would just multiply. I remember i was once in Chicago writing during college and these guys came over to talk to us. we all grabbed weapons and they got all scared. then they explained that they just wanted to meet other writers. well, that was kind of annoying to my friends and I. here we grew up, fighting for every square foot of wall, going up against all odds to make a name. and here these kids were, socializing like a sorority. F that.

The third manner, one that i got good at in college, was to get somebody or a place that wanted you to do a mural for them, then you would outrageously over estimate the paint you needed and have them pick up the bill. i don't know if there was ever a term for that, besides "over buying". but it was the easiest and safest way to get paint. YOU NEVER BOUGHT IT YOURSELF. Mathmatically it was impossible for us anyways. a good bombing run would be about 10-12 cans and a piece could go up to 40-50 cans of paint. at 4-5 dollars a can that added up quickly. all i got was 20 dollars a weak from my parents or my shitty ice cream slinging job at skimpy treat, and that was certainly no where near the amount needed. all my loot-cakes went to Blunts and 40 ounce of Old English, like any normal kid in the neighborhood.
Another little known fact was that there was a lot of emphasis on certain colors, Krylon was a company that came up with a lot of soft pastel colors and off white colors that mixed well on murals. there was always Rustoleum too, but that paint came in more basic colors and i never found a good store for it. There were also subtle differences that needed to be noted. Like Glossy Black and Ultra-Flat Black were two COMPLETELY different colors. I usually went bombing with Ultra-Flat Black and some White or Plum for darker surfaces or to fill in bubble letters. A fast bubble letter tag was called a "Throw-Up" as opposed to a "burner" or "piece" which meant several colors and a lot of artistic detail. Pieces took hours to make and you had to choose spots that were hidden in the dark or high up so you could take your time without getting caught. But to pull one off by painting all night into the morning hours was the best feeling. I can't describe the feeling of accomplishment when you came back in the light of day and saw your masterpiece for the first time in good light. best feeling ever.

Somebody at some point figured out how to customize colors by using a mostly full white can, and an almost done can of a bright color. if you put a coffee straw into both holes and pressed together the white would force itself into the lesser pressurized full can and mix with the original color. but that shit was a bit too time consuming and technical to be useful for the volume writer. maybe the once every now and then, finesse writer did that, but not a guy like me.
another thing my girl had no idea about and i almost forgot about was the importance of caps. fat caps, skinny caps, and extra fat caps all came off of different household spray products. the caps that came on the cans of krylon or "rusto" sucked. they were a thin line without sharp edges. so one had to go shopping for caps. that meant that you went to a hardware store, a drug store, or even an art store and plucked as many caps off of the stuff you found on the racks. it was mostly hit or miss, unless you found a super fat cap, and then you needed to try to remember what product it came off of.

i am sure that NYC had thousands of people buy random spray products only to find them cap less when they got home. well, you can thank Graffiti writers for that. they need to have different width lines for tagging and pieces. Some people figured out how to cut regular caps with razor blades to make them fat or skinny, but when i did it it always ended in tragedy. a good fat cap used with an angle on the wrist often could create an almost calligraphic style to a simple tag:
other techniques i ended up using were large rollers and house paint to block out huge letters. My crew and I once did 25 foot wide letters on the west side highway before trump built his city over the abandoned track of Amtrak on the river. we needed rollers and house paint just to pull of the sheer volume on that one. Anybody have pics of these pieces? cause i don't. I am talking to NBC readers right now. you know who you are. Holler, or Challah back if you have pics of that crazy shit we did.


Another technique is to do fine detail with paint markers, like quasars, cracks in metal. but for some reason that always seemed like cheating to me. writers in LA loved that shit. which leads me nicely into paint markers, ink markers and window tagging. if you weren't full on bombing or piecing, like just walking around with friends, then carrying around markers was a constant. tagging everything from mail boxes to signs to windows. on trains we figured out that sand paper, acid, and leather awls were very useful for scratching tags into subway windows. i used to think that this was dumb and toy. but nowadays, the scratched subway windows are the oldest running things in the main part of the city. i see 15 year old tags regularly, where in the streets you will RARELY see tags that old.

things that changed the game for us were Guiliani and the fact that cops DIDN'T have bigger fish to fry. When we got caught in the day, it meant you might get a punch or two, or sprayed on, or once i was used as target practice as the cops threw my own paint at me as i walked away from them. they told me i couldn't run or turn around and dodge. so cans started whipping by me and exploding on parked cars and store fronts. considering the damage THEY were doing, obviously it was more about having fun then catching vandals. they were probably relieved to deal with us rather then armed criminals. i remember pitying them and there jobs. but the pity went away when a can smashed into my kidney and bounced. nowadays you can expect to be treated civilly by the cops, but rest assured, your ass is going to Central Bookings.

Anyways, after i told my girl all this stuff, she seemed to look at me a bit differently. like who IS this guy?! I swear, i was a normal kid for NYC. I haven't even thought about this fun stuff in a decade or more, so there's no way she would have known how much i used to think about it until we were in this hardware store and i was pointing things out.