How To Tag Graffiti

Hi there. My names G, I'm from the Graffiti Kings. We're based in London and I'm going to show you some tips and techniques that will turn you into a bonafide graffiti writer in no time at all. One of the fundamentals in graffiti is the tag. What is a tag? A tag is your name, your chosen nickname, your chosen moniker. You choose a name, you want to get it out there, you want to get it seen.

That is what graffiti is about, getting your name seen in as many different places as you can and in as many different styles all the way through from tagging, which I'm about to show you, through to all the big colorful masterpieces that everybody is impressed with. So, let's move on to the tag. It can be produced with a can of paint, it can be produced with a marker pen, or it can be produced in a number of different ways.

A can of paint spray - can, that's a graffiti term - or nozzle, call it what you will, put it on your can of paint and make sure you're not spraying yourself. Go to your chosen surface and hold the can of paint approximately 2 or 3 inches from the wall. Try and keep the can of paint as straight as possible.

If you start tilting it up, down, left, or right as I will demonstrate, you will start getting a mist going in different directions. Some forms of tagging incorporate mist in the tags. What I'm going to show you first of all, is how you, a novice who doesn't know anything about graffiti, can actually look like you know what you're doing. How do you do this? How is it achievable? Here's the technique.

Don't try and put style into every letter if you've never done graffiti before, because that's how you tell a good writer from a bad writer. Watch this, let's choose a word, let's say king, kings because we are the graffiti kings. Simple K, simple I, simple N, simple G. But, here's where the style comes in, a flamboyant S. Why have I done that? Here's the reasoning.

. If you don't know how to tag you would think that every single tag has to have style in every single letter, but that is not the case. Let me give you an example of somebody trying to put style in every single letter and why it's wrong. There you go, your first tag. If you try to put style in every letter and you don't know what you're doing it will look something like this.

To the untrained eye, you think that's quite good, you think you've just produced a tag, but let me tell you now, every single graffiti writer that is out there with over two weeks experience, will know you're something called a toy. A toy is a term in graffiti culture given to somebody who cannot do graffiti. You don't want to look like a toy, you want to keep it simple. So to recap: simple, let's choose a word again, let's choose the word frog. Simple F, simple R, simple O, when you get to the G, this is where you can play around.

By giving only one letter style you're almost guaranteeing that your tag, right from the word go, is authentic and it looks good. You will see other tags produced by other people that are stylish all the way through but these people have been tagging for 25 years. That's why they can put style into every letter. I can guarantee you as a novice if you start putting style into every single one of your letters the first time you try and do a tag, it will look rubbish, and everybody will know that you don't know what you're doing. That is the key technique.

One more time - think about it, choose your word, say your word is tag because it's your tag. Simple T, just like a block letter, just like a capital letter that you would write if you were using a pen and a piece of paper. Simple A, but when you get to the G you can give it a bit more style. You can reverse that, so you could make the T more stylish but then make the other letters less stylish. Once again it looks correct. If you try and add style to every letter you will go wrong, it is a mistake. That is how you tag authentically right from the word go.