Tag Team: More Graffiti News

As graffiti crews like RTD and TKO fight over wall space around town, Buffalo Exchange, at 230 East 13th Avenue, was giving it away on Tuesday, June 19, to the first aerosol-can carrying, rubber-glove wearing tagger to show up. And word spread fast. In just a few hours more than ten pieces were up in the alley and parking lot behind the consignment shop, from luminaries such as Hotboy and Claws.

The project was given approval based on the theory that if the taggers were given time and space to put up burners (for a complete resource of tagger jargon, see Jared Jacang Maher’s article "Tag, You’re It” in this week’s issue), then the enclosed parking lot wouldn’t get hit so often with shitty tags. But there’s still no telling how long they’ll stay up since city buff crews are even known to paint over such “legal” walls.

So why do these aerosol artists put so much time into these pieces if they only face extinction at the end of a high-pressure hose? “It’s almost as addictive as crack,” one tagger said. “And the high lasts longer.” – Taylor Sullivan