kind of off topic, but did you see the cover of the Daily News Today jaypaav? It was about tagging trains by europeans:
www.nydailynews.com/front/story/479076p-403027c.html

I think part of reason Shepard Fairy doesn't get busted cause what he does is more readily considered art, that just writing foul language or your name on whatever you are tagging/bombing/whatever. Same thing goes for Banksy too.

"Map" was recently busted here in NYC and they have a serious problem with him cause he just etches his name into train windows.
And from the looks of this story, from only the most reputable of sources, it looks like he is kind of a dumbass.
www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/11/28/cops_graffiti_v.php

""Map" was recently busted here in NYC and they have a serious problem with him cause he just etches his name into train windows."

Painting is one thing, etching is another.

Etching on public Transport windows has safety issues for every user . MAP is a tw@t.

banksy is an artist with a message
from the look of tox's "work" i'd say he is neither an artist, nor does he have a message...in fact he sounds like a complete t**t

LMFAO & you say you like graffiti?!?

TOX is a star, there's one of his tags in a crude oil if you pay attention

Not sure that makes him a star, i think its banksy is actually being very clever and is using that tag in crude oils as a social commentary on the state of Britains streets rather than giving him due respect.

That tag is all over where i live, its crap all it says "i was here"

Everyones entitled to their opinion.

I like Graffiti with a political message or some humour in it, or just because the image is pleasing to the eye-

Some guy plastering his name over everything isn't in the same league is it?

It shows no real talent, unless being able to repetively write your name in the same way, on every available surface

again and....
again and....
again and.....
again.....

without going mad from sheer boredom or the fumes from the marker pen is a talent.

Which Crude Oils is it in? I know Ive seen it - but for the life of me - I cant find it again.

I didn't mean he's a star because he's in a banksy painting.
I meant he's in a banksy painting because he's a star.

tox is a cock lol

It doesn't take a genius to know that some graffiti is art, while the vast majority of graffiti is simply vandalism. Tagging is an incredibly juvenile and counterproductive past-time with a lot of these clowns, and while they revel in their "rebelliousness" the rest of us puke because they make nice neighborhoods look like absolute s**t-holes. Most of us like art. And we can appreciate the theory behind street art--the problem is, just like every other form of art, most of the practitioners are simply void of talent.

While it is easy to avoid the work of a crap dj, crap actor, idiotic musician, etc.--you simply can't escape the garbage street "artist." That jackass is, unfortunately for the rest of us, able to inflict their shite on the world at large. And to tell you the truth, I'd rather look at a plain wall than some dumbshit's name written over and over. Who gives a fuck if he had to avoid getting caught to put it up there? The ACT of graffiti is only admirable when the object of the act (i.e., the art itself) is also admirable.

That TOX guy is exactly what is WRONG with graffiti.

There, I just drew the line. Now we all know where it is.

Can you imagine going through school being called Shepard Fairey

Tad - I will take a photo next time I see one. Pretty sure there is a good one on Vauxhall station but I haven't been there for a while so it may have been buffed.

Yeah. That's the good stuff. Nice share with those pics, btw.

Tagging is an essential part of modern graffiti history. Graf was/is all about "getting up." Bottom line. Modern street graf started as people plastering their name up on the wall all over the city. Bansky and Co. are doing the same thing, but they just happen to have a message that's deeper than Tox's.

Tox gets mad respect cuz he's doing his thing. Is it pretty? NO!, but he's very prolific in getting his name around. Proof is in the pudding, we're having a discussion about a tagger on the internet. He's doing the same thing as every other graffiti artist out there. Putting his mark on a piece of property that isn't his.

Both movements represent the same fundamentals and to dismiss Tox's work cuz it's ugly, is very ignorant. It's like saying two pieces of gold aren't worth as much as the other, because one is polished and the other is still in ore form. Doesn't make sense.

Essentially, you are claiming that the fundamental value of graffiti is the act of "putting a mark on a piece of property that isn't his[hers]." Then you imply that by extension of that claim, that any and all graffiti--including meaningless 'tags'--is essentially the same. So, the distinction between TOX and Banksy or Shep is really nothing more than aesthetics--a matter of taste.

We're talking about TOX because he provides the perfect counter-example to Shep or Banksy. Imagine a discussion of 'spiritual leaders' and evaluating each individual on how devoted their followers were. In that type of scenario, Charles Manson might be "THE MAN!" because his followers were willing to murder on command. But does that really make Charles Manson a good spiritual leader?

We're not talking about TOX because "getting up" or "staying up" has any value whatsoever (in fact, it seems like the main problem with graffiti, if anything). It is simply because he is a convenient example of the vast majority of graffiti; petty vandalism (i.e., ruining something that isn't yours, and to no purpose--this is truly wasteful and stupid). Unfortunately, most graffiti--particularly tags--is nothing more than the expression of a frustrated megalomaniacs. And really, who gives a s**t?! Only other megalomaniacs who engage in the same inane antics.

I think you were onto something with your metaphor of the gold. When mining or panning for gold, there is a lot of worthless dirt that you have to get through before you find anything of value. Rarely do you actually find gold; often you find nothing worth keeping at all. But one in ten thousand times you will strike it rich. And in this metaphor, Banksy and Shep are exactly those strikes.

I hear what you're saying, and think the logic behind those arguments are severely flawed.