20 Types of Graffiti: Iconic Styles & Tags, Explained

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Plus, learn how to decode and understand street art where you live

Co-authored by Eric McClure

Last Updated: March 9, 2026 Fact Checked

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Essential Styles

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Other Types of Graffiti

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Regional Styles

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How to Read Graffiti

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Graffiti Terms

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Graffiti artists, known as “writers,” create some of the most fascinating art in the world, but it’s not always clear what they’re writing, why, or what the different styles even mean in the first place. Well, writers “write” their names! Over and over again, a graffiti artist heads out into the world to scrawl their nickname all over walls and public property with the hopes of sharing their work and getting their name recognized by other writers. In this article, we’ll break down the major styles and regional variations of graffiti, plus explain how to read graffiti so you can appreciate it even more.

Different Graffiti Styles

The fundamental types of graffiti include the handstyle (or “tag”), the throw up (or “throwie”), the straight letter, the piece, and the wildstyle (or “burner”). Graffiti writers may specialize in one type of graffiti, but every artist (called a writer) will generally be familiar with these forms.

Section 1 of 5:

Major Graffiti Styles

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Handstyle Also known as a “tag” by people unfamiliar with graffiti art, the handstyle is the artist’s main signature. It’s their name, illustrated in whatever simple style they prefer. Handstyles are typically done in 2-5 seconds, and they only require one marker or spray paint can to create them.
- Writers will typically put their handstyle next to elaborate pieces they make, kind of like the signature on a traditional canvas painting.
- Graffiti writers typically use “tag” as a verb and “handstyle” as a noun. “Tagging” also refers specifically to the act (or instances of the act) of illegal writing, while “handstyle” is the author’s overall stylistic signature.
- A mop tag refers to a handstyle tag performed with a squeezable “mop” marker. Popularized by the artist (and now product line) Krink, mops have thick, bold lines and drips. This image of a NECKFACE tag is a great example.
- Examples include: REVOK, UTAH and ETHER, and GOOFY.
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Throwup The uninitiated will call this style “bubble letters,” but a graffiti artist will refer to this as a throwup (because you “throwup” a quick piece). Also known as “throwies,” throw ups are sort of like a complex handstyle in the sense that a writer can replicate them multiple times, and artists will practice throwups multiple times. They’re typically used in high-traffic areas where a vandal won’t have enough time to do anything complicated, but they’ll have more than enough time to do something more impressive than a handstyle. A writer may only need 1-2 minutes to paint a throwup.^{[1]
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- A hollow refers to a throwup that consists of only an outline. These can be done in as little as 20-30 seconds. Here’s an example from OSER and another from EARSNOT.
- A one-liner is a throwup the artist completes with only a single line. Here’s a YouTube video of OVER outlining a one-liner.
- Examples include: NATO, COPE2, and JA ONE.
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Straight letter A straight letter is what it sounds like—a graffiti piece with straight letters. The style here always comes down to the little flourishes, adjustments, and angles a writer may make to give the piece a little more attitude and style. Straight letter pieces are intended to be highly legible, and you’ll often see them on billboards, train cars, and rooftops where the viewer won’t have time to study the design and read it. They often take 5-10 minutes to do, or more.
- Want to learn how to write? If you want to learn how to write graffiti, start by learning how to do a clean, straight letter piece. This will teach you how to space the letters out, maintain consistency across your name, and develop the fundamentals needed to construct more elaborate work.
- Examples include: CRASH, NEKST, and SMOKE.
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Piece “Piece” is kind of a catchall term in the world of graffiti. It can be used to refer to any single instance of graffiti other than a handstyle, so it is the sort of default term for work that is more elaborate than a straight letter, but still legible (unlike a wildstyle). How long it takes an artist to create a piece depends on the complexity, but artists often spend 10-30 minutes on it.^{[2]
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- Examples include: GESER, BONES, and ELMER.
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Wildstyle Also known as “burners,” wildstyles are those huge, complex pieces that you probably think nobody can read. The artist warps the letters and bends them in elaborate ways to construct complicated pieces that are next-level eye candy. The wildstyle is typically reserved for murals and more remote locations where the artist can work for a few hours without being interrupted, as they can take 6-12 hours to complete.^{[3]
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- Can writers really read wildstyles? Most writers can decode a wildstyle, but there are 100% pieces out there where even the most seasoned writer is going to be scratching their head. These things are more about flexing your artistic skills than constructing easily-readable work, though.
- Examples include: REVOK, AMUSE, and WEBB.

Section 2 of 5:

Other Types of Graffiti

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Blockbuster A blockbuster is a really big piece. Like…comically big. “How did they do that?” big. Due to the scale of the piece, a blockbuster will typically have very simple lettering styles, as keeping track of more complex letters can be really difficult when you’re working on such a big scale.
- When a blockbuster takes up a whole train car, it’s known as a “whole car.” Here’s an example from KOSM.
- Examples include: JEL, DONDI, and NEKST.
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Roller Rollers are giant pieces completed with a paint roller and tray. Artists will often connect multiple roller extension poles together so that they can reach really high spots on a wall. Since it’s so hard for a writer to bend a roller to make complicated shapes, these pieces are almost always straight letters.
- Examples include: ECHO, REVS and COST, and AIDZ.
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Fire extinguisher You’ll typically only see fire extinguisher pieces in cities where wall space is really at a premium, but they’re common enough to mention. Here’s how it works: a graffiti writer empties out a fire extinguisher. Then, they use a funnel to fill the thing with paint. Voila! You have a device that can spray graffiti on a wall 30–40 ft (9.1–12.2 m) above you.
- Examples include: READER, PATHETIC, and MORAL.
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Heaven spot If you look at a piece of graffiti and think, “How did they get up there?” you’re looking at a heaven spot. The name comes from the fact that if you fall while you’re working on one of these, you “go to heaven.” Writers will rappel from rooftops, use ladders, jump across buildings, and even climb freeway signs to reach heaven spots because they’re considered the most dangerous form of graffiti art.
- Examples include: KID, BUGE, SIGH, and RICE and SIXRE.
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3D/abstract 3D and abstract are popular among writers who specialize in wildstyles and more elaborate murals. They’re sort of the most complex thing you can do with a can of spraypaint, and these pieces are often more about the form and shape of the composition than actual readability. In fact, reading many of these pieces is often completely impossible as the letters can be so contorted that they’re beyond legibility. That said, a good piece of 3D or abstract work can take your breath away all the same!
- Examples include: DAIM, PEETA, and SANDMAN.
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Ignorant Also known as “anti-style,” the “ignorant” movement is all about returning graffiti to its roots by emphasizing the vandalism part of graffiti. If you’re going to write on people’s stuff without permission, own it! Don’t pretend you’re making art, just have fun writing on stuff. These “artists” are pretty controversial, and many writers try to distance themselves from ignorant graffiti writers.
- Examples include: NECK FACE, KIDULT, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
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Sticker Stickers are pretty common for graffiti writers. You go get a stack of free USPS stickers from the post office, you tag or draw on them, and then you stick them to mailboxes and abandoned storefront windows. Some artists specialize in stickers, and many will even get custom stickers printed.
- Examples include: BORED/OCNEY, OVENS/STREY/GASP, and WG/SPOT/DINK/DSM/ALE.
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Stencil Stencils are typically reserved for “street artists” (which is different than graffiti!), but some graffiti writers will also employ stencils. To make a stencil, you take thick cardboard or cardstock and use a utility knife to carve out the image. Then, you can just hold the stencil against the wall and spray paint over it to put the art on the wall.
- What’s the difference between graffiti and street art? “Street art” typically carries an air of superiority that graffiti writers don’t like. They know they’re doing vandalism, and that’s part of the art! Graffiti writers also paint their name over and over again, while street artists may not even have a nickname they go by (like Shepherd Fairy and his “Obey” work). Banksy is probably the most popular street artist right now.
- Examples include: CARNAL and BAD MATH.
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Etch Etch graffiti is made by filling a mop-style marker with corrosive acid. The acid eats away a layer of glass and discolors it. This style of graffiti is typically reserved for subway windows and the windows of abandoned buildings (graffiti writers tend to avoid small businesses as a rule).
- Examples include: MOST, WECK, and ZEOR.

Section 3 of 5:

Regional Graffiti Styles

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Wickets (Philadelphia) In Philly, the handstyles look much different than they do in the rest of the country. Writers use a very tall, vertical letter style (called “wickets”) that you won’t find anywhere else. Famous Philly writer ENEM breaks the style down in this super fun demonstration on YouTube, if you’re curious.^{[4]
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- Philadelphia actually invented graffiti! The story goes that this kid, nicknamed CORNBREAD, wanted to impress his crush. So, he grabbed a can of spray paint and went along her entire bus route, writing his name on the walls along the way. Thus, the idea of writing your name on walls to get noticed was born.
- Examples include: RIME, BREAD, and PORSCHE.
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Chicano (Los Angeles) Also referred to as “cholo” style, LA’s graffiti scene is heavily influenced by the Mexican and Central American calligraphy styles of the 70s and 80s, which is when graffiti art exploded. It’s characterized by sharp, jagged linework, even letter spacing, and curly flourishes. Day of the Dead aesthetic choices and characters are also very common.^{[5]
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- Examples include: TLOK (TOOMR), RISK/REVOK/ABEL, and SHARP.
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European (Western Europe) “European” style is especially common in the Nordic countries and mainland Western Europe. It’s typically much more colorful than American regional styles, and artists in this style don’t emphasize uniformity. Letters may be completely different from one another, even in the same piece or handstyle, and the result is much more “expressive” than others.^{[6]
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- Examples include: KESO, GORILLA, AGUA, and RIGED.
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Chicago Style (Chicago) If Philly’s wickets are all about taking up vertical space, Chicago style is all about taking up horizontal space. It’s aggressive, readable, big, and meant to occupy more square footage than really necessary. Readers here will often tack an “R” on the end of their name to extend the bottom bar out and occupy more space, or put a ton of halos and arrows on their handstyles so they stand out more.^{[7]
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Research source} Today, Chicago style dominates the Midwest and you can find it in Kansas City, Detroit, Milwaukee, and other major cities that aren’t on a coast.
- Examples include: VILS (BAD crew), TREX, RAISE, and FACT.
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Pixacao (Brazil) Also known as “Pichação,” pixacao is Brazil’s premier style. It’s very angular and often described as aggressive, but it is very pretty in its own way. These writers prioritize characters and handstyles, with a much softer emphasis on the piecing and wildstyles.^{[8]
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- Examples include: ANONIMOS, ANORT/BANDAS, and SRIC.
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New York numbering (New York City) It’s not a distinct style, but NYC is famous for its habit of tacking numbers onto the back of writers’ names. This comes from a tradition in the early 80s where artists would want writers from other boroughs to know which street they lived on. So, if you lived on 127th street and you wrote JUMBO, you would write JUMBO127. New York also invented the practice of putting a 2 or 3 after your name if there used to be another writer who wrote the same name.^{[9]
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- Examples include: COPE2, TAKI183, and TRACY168.

Section 4 of 5:

How to Read Graffiti

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Find the first letter and trace it with your finger. The hardest part of reading a tag or piece is finding where it starts. Look for the first legible letter on the leftmost side of the piece and follow the main bars of the letter with your finger. Literally trace it! You’ll be able to figure out if it’s an E, S, T, or whatever letter the name starts with.
- Graffiti names are typically 4-6 letters long. When typing them out, you always capitalize the entire name, but the artist’s tag or piece may contain a mix of capital and lowercase letters.
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Follow along the next 3-5 letters. Focus specifically on the horizontal center of the word. Go from letter to letter and trace each one individually. If you see a really big letter you can’t make sense of, assume the writer simply wrote two letters without lifting the can or marker and try to decode it that way. With a little bit of practice, you should be able to parse what you’re looking at.
- Graffiti writers often choose real words or names as their moniker, but many of them opt for nonsense words like EDSK or HELCH.
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Ignore any stars, halos, arrows, or underlines. These little flourishes are popular design elements, but they don’t actually mean anything. They’re sort of like decoration for a handstyle. Take a look at this handstyle by SEVER. On top, you can see a halo. There are two underlines below, and quotation marks on either side. On the bottom left, there’s an asterisk/star. None of these elements is required to read the tag, though!
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Treat 2- to 3-letter nonsense words as crew names. Graffiti writers often join crews of other writers. They’ll hang out together, paint together, and just generally enjoy one anothers’ company. These crews are typically acronyms. For example, in Chicago, the notorious CAB crew stands for “Chicago Always Bangs.” A crew may have multiple acronyms, though.
- Here’s a good example from COSER. You can see the CMW next to the tag. That’s their crew!
- Crews may also complete larger pieces, like this one from MUL.
- A writer may be a member of multiple crews.
- Crews are nothing like gangs. They’re more like fraternities. Other than graffiti, crews don’t typically do anything illegal together.

Section 5 of 5:

Popular Graffiti Terms

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Bombing Going out and painting all over an area. The implication is that it should look like a paint bomb went off. This isn’t just hitting one or two spots; if you go bombing, you might do 20-30 pieces a night.
- “Yo, me and Alex and going bombing later if you feel like painting.”
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Fat cap A type of nozzle for spray paint cans that creates a super-thick line. These caps are important for filling in pieces quickly before you draw attention. They can also be used to create really vibrant, large tags, like this one from RESK 12.
- “It’ll have to be a hollow. I didn’t bring a fat cap for the fill.”
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Fill The inside of a piece. The fill refers to the (often) colorful interior of pieces. It’s important in graffiti because if you use spray paint, the outline is the last thing you do, so the fill happens first.
- “I like the fill on that piece with the wavy green in the middle. It’s really unique.”
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Stamp To cover someone else’s work. If you’re beefing with another writer, stamping their work out is considered the highest form of insult. Writers may get into beef for any number of reasons—someone stole a friend’s name, they went over their work, they blew up a spot by posting online, etc.
- “I’m stamping out every DRUM tag I see. Just going over it with a quick throwie.”
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Buff Graffiti removal. Cities will either paint over graffiti or use a pressure washer to remove the paint from brick or concrete. If your work got covered, you got “buffed,” and a writer may pick hard-to-reach areas for pieces specifically to avoid the buff.
- “I didn’t even get to go back and take photos…New York’s buff is so fast.”
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Toy Someone not very good at graffiti. Toys are considered unartistic, unoriginal, and annoying. Seasoned writers will often stamp over toys intentionally so that their terrible work isn’t associated with their city.
- “Check out that toy piece over there. Someone needs to cover that thing.”
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Blackbook A sketchbook where you practice your work. It’s called a black book because most writers opt for a hardcover sketchbook to protect their work since they carry it around to murals and spots, and these sketchbooks are often black.
- “Have you seen my blackbook? I want to do this piece in it but I need the sketch.”
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Can control A writer’s ability to cut and move a spray paint can. If you have really good can control, you’ll never have accidental drips or miss part of an outline.
- “AMUSE has some crazy can control. You ever see that guy’s murals?”
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Getting up Getting your name out there by painting. If you go out bombing two nights a week for a month, you’re really getting up. It’s sort of like graffiti slang for “becoming known.”
- “I haven’t really been getting up lately; I’ve just been so busy at work.”
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All-city A writer so prominent that you find their work everywhere. For anyone who takes graffiti very seriously, “all city” is sort of what your goal is. It’s where people in every neighborhood of your city know your work because it’s that common. You’ve been everywhere, and you’ve painted everything!.
- “ZWON has to be all city at this point, right? The guy is getting up everywhere.”