# Paint-based mischief (Graffiti, if you will)



## Stormcat (Jun 18, 2019)

The Rebel alliance in my story causes all sorts of chaos for the theocratic regime. One of the most prominent ways is by defying the "pure white" policy and paint various colors around the capital city. 

Since I'm a good girl who grew up in and still lives in the suburbs, I'm looking for information on graffiti. Tags, paints, how artists avoid getting caught, basically anything to do with the stuff. Care to help out?


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## CyberWar (Jun 19, 2019)

Most proper graffiti (by which I mean artistic quality graffiti, not tags, crude drawings of male genitalia or certain three-letter combinations in Slavic languages) these days is in fact completely legit, artists collaborating with the authorities in decorating objects in need of decoration (such as derelict factories and other eyesores that for some reason cannot be demolished). For example, in a town not far from mine, there's a complex of garages whose outer wall faces a highway. This wall is used for official graffiti tournaments, letting artists showcase their talents and turning into a town advertisement what would otherwise be an ugly concrete wall. The said wall is whitewashed once or twice a year to make room for new artwork, preserving only the most popular images. 

 Since creating a proper artwork isn't a quick business, some degree of collaboration between artists and authorities is in fact necessary, at least with the authorities looking the other way.

There are dedicated grafitti arts shops which sell spray paint and other accessories to graffiti artists. There are even silenced spray cans available in these shops, to reduce the distinctive spraying sound and make avoiding the police or security guards easier. Formally, of course, all artists are encouraged to abide the law and only paint in officially-approved locations.

For those artists who are into the business primarily for the thrill, a favourite challenge is to leave their works in places difficult or dangerous to access. Examples include leaving their signature (a unique text or drawing) on the wall of a multi-story apartment building many floors from the ground, or on the support of a bridge, the accessing of which would require mountaineering equipment or a boat. Avoiding the police is usually accomplished by posting one or more lookouts some distance away, to call or text the painting crew if the police is seen approaching. Better-funded outfits can also procure a police radio to listen if there are any patrols directed their way.

Generally, it is private security rather than police that is the real bane of the graffiti artist. Police officers are obliged to do everything by the book, especially these days with body cams and whatnot. Private security, however, will oftentimes much rather simply rough up any taggers caught trespassing than bother with the paperwork that comes with detaining them and calling the police. After all, who can the tagger complain to afterwards, himself being guilty of trespassing and vandalism? 

Tagging is generally frowned upon by serious artists, as it rarely has any artistic quality to it, and constitutes the majority of graffiti vandalism, giving the whole art a bad rep. Tagging is frequently practiced by street gangs to mark their territory, and by teenage copycats who do it for the thrill and their own amusement. Serious artists will only tag their own work (a tag effectively being the artist's or a group's signature). Tagging over another's work or crossing out another's tag means "dissing" it, i.e., showing disrespect.

From my modest personal experience with the subject, I would say acrylic spray paints are the best for graffiti, because they do not trickle as easily. This is important because it gives more room for error, allowing more paint to be sprayed in one place before it starts to trickle and ruins the picture, which can especially be a concern for novice artists.

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Given the setting of your story, I gather there wouldn't be much room for cooperation between the authorities and the rebel graffiti artists and taggers (unless of course there was also a pro-government group that the authorities tolerated for their "Jesus saves" tags), let alone any dedicated graffiti shops. So I suppose obtaining the necessary supplies would require them to improvise, using available industrial goods and maybe contraband from abroad.


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## Amnesiac (Jun 19, 2019)

Do a GIS for Banksy. Frickin' excellent!


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## Stormcat (Jun 19, 2019)

CyberWar said:


> Given the setting of your story, I gather there wouldn't be much room for cooperation between the authorities and the rebel graffiti artists and taggers (unless of course there was also a pro-government group that the authorities tolerated for their "Jesus saves" tags), let alone any dedicated graffiti shops. So I suppose obtaining the necessary supplies would require them to improvise, using available industrial goods and maybe contraband from abroad.



Yes, most of the paint shops would indeed have to be underground. Maybe stencils would work better? in that way a single image can be copied over multiple times any any style of paint could be used?


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## CyberWar (Jun 21, 2019)

Stormcat said:


> Yes, most of the paint shops would indeed have to be underground. Maybe stencils would work better? in that way a single image can be copied over multiple times any any style of paint could be used?



Stencils would work, though they'd present a slight additional risk to the rebels. If stopped and searched by the police, you can theoretically come up with a plausible excuse for having cans of spray paint in your backpack, which would not be the case if you were also found in possession of a stencil with a rebellious slogan.


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## escorial (Jun 21, 2019)

Berlin is full of the stuff at street level and it's spreading all over Liverpool(student city)...it's a nocturnal thing..alot take clbing courses an spend a few quid on kit..


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## Stormcat (Jun 21, 2019)

CyberWar said:


> Stencils would work, though they'd present a slight additional risk to the rebels. If stopped and searched by the police, you can theoretically come up with a plausible excuse for having cans of spray paint in your backpack, which would not be the case if you were also found in possession of a stencil with a rebellious slogan.



But the stencil could be just made out of paper or cardboard, right? Easy enough to tear up and destroy if need be.


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## CyberWar (Jun 23, 2019)

Stormcat said:


> But the stencil could be just made out of paper or cardboard, right? Easy enough to tear up and destroy if need be.



Easy enough if you have the time, which might not always be the case, such as when suddenly stopped and searched by the police.

I'd say tagging would be the most effective way of proliferating rebellious graffiti. It only takes a few seconds to draw a tag and requires minimal supplies, making it both economical and leaves little incriminating material. A tag should be something simple and easily memorized - a symbol, abbreviation or a short slogan of one or two words.


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## Stormcat (Jun 23, 2019)

CyberWar said:


> I'd say tagging would be the most effective way of proliferating rebellious graffiti. It only takes a few seconds to draw a tag and requires minimal supplies, making it both economical and leaves little incriminating material. A tag should be something simple and easily memorized - a symbol, abbreviation or a short slogan of one or two words.



This makes sense.

...now to just come up with a tag...


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