Going Underground: A Journey into the Graffiti Subculture

Abstract

Those new to graffiti probably know very little about its point and purpose. Graffiti writers are not particularly vocal about what they do, and the tabloid press, who comment more than most, rarely tell the whole story. This chapter will set the subcultural scene and try to fill in some of these knowledge gaps. Readers will take an informational journey through subcultural terrain and gain a basic, but detailed, overview of its nature and function; an understanding of what graffiti writers work to achieve and the different ways they realize these ambitions.