Graffiti Dictionary

We're here to get you a head start with your Graffiti experience. To help you we've listed out terms you'll hear artists use at one of our workshops or fun team building events.
  • Black Book: A graffiti artist uses a black book to sketch out and plan future ideas and concepts. It's also a where they collect tags from other writers. The book is highly valuable to a graffiti writer.
  • Bomb: To "bomb" is to get up as many surfaces as you can in an area. The mode of choice is usually tags or throw-ups due to the time invested
  • Burn: Beat a competing writer with style
  • Burner: Take out a competitor with your style
  • Crew The graffiti worlds version of Team. A crew can be any group of writer that choose to work together.
  • Fat Cap A spray paint cap that covers a lot of area. Often used for filling in sections of a graffiti piece.
  • Get Up Every graffiti writer's goal is to Get Up. Getting up is getting your art and name out there and building your reputation.
  • Heavens If it's hard to get to and highly visible a graffiti writer would call it heaven. Executing a piece associated with that kind of risk would boost a writers rep significantly
  • King A well respected writer in the world of graffiti. This is a term that takes on regional characteristics. You can self proclaim yourself a king but you better be very confident that's how your seen. Typically a king has been declared so by an existing king.
  • Knight A writer still progressing in their skills who has gained a lot of respect
  • Paste-Up A drawing or stencil attached to a wall with wheatpaste
  • Pawn Another word to describe a newbie like Toy.
  • Piece Short for masterpiece, this a large work of art that takes much more time, materials, and effort.
  • Rook Trusted member of a crew
  • Tag a stylized signature used by a writer to sign their work, get up, and let the world know who they are. It's the most basic form of graffiti
  • Throw-up Also called a "throwie". More complex than a tax, less complex than a masterpiece. Typically uses two colors - one as an outline the other for fill. They're designed to go up quickly and efficiently so the writer can increase his visibility through volume.
  • Toy A newbie. No experience.
  • Wildstyle A complex style that is often hard to read with interlocking letters and shapes
  • Writer a graffiti artist