Though it may appear to many Angelinos as an unsightly mess of scribbles, graffiti is a far more complex social phenomenon. For the individuals who leave their "tags" across the city, those letters represent who they are as idividuals. The quality, size and placement of their work lets other taggers know who is best. For some, sheer quantity matters most. By saturating as many areas as possible with their tag, graffiti writers let each other know who is putting in the work to "get up" as they call it.
A youth that at one time could be found tagging the walls of Los Angeles has chosen to leave a much more lasting impact on his city.
Montez Fowler now manages the South Los Angeles Community Beautification Team, a division of the L.A. Public Works Department. During his early 20s, a friend influenced him to think twice about tagging.
Since it's proliferation in the late 1960s, graffiti has continuously sparked debate about whether it is a form or art or an act of vandalism. The range of opinions usually falls somewhere in between the two notions. It is hard for most people to deny that defacing another person's property is in fact a crime. Taggers and graffiti artists know and accept this as an essential part of their process. But all graffiti writers are not created alike.
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Reformed Tagger Spreads City Paint
Art or Vandalism? The Great Debate