Battle - Crews having a disagreement. Two forms of battle are skills or getting up, or quality versus quantity. Examples of payment for losing include paint, pot, a punch in the face, or the losing crew has to stop writing their name.
Bubble Letters - Type of graffiti letters, usually considered to be an older and sometimes out-dated style. Often used for throw-up letters because of their rounded shape, which allows for quick formation.
Bite, to - To copy or rip off another's style.
Bomb, to - To cover in graffiti. Most often, to cover with tags.
Buff, to - To clean off graffiti using chemicals or by painting over.
Cans - Spray-paint cans.
Cap, to - To cross out or deface another writer's work. Also known as 'to line out' or 'to cross out.'
Caps - Fat or skinny. The nozzle of the can that creates a thick or thin line of paint.
Character - A cartoon figure usually taken from comic books, television, or popular culture to add humor or emphasis to a piece. In some pieces, the character takes the place of a letter in the word.
Cloud - Stylistic form applied to pieces. Not as frequently used now as it was in the early days.
Crew - A loosely organized group of writers who also tag the crew initials along with their name. Crew names are usually three letters, many times ending with K, which stands for kings or kills in most cases.
Dis - To insult. Comes from the word disrespect. Originally it was a hip-hop / rap term, but has now found its way into the culture at large.
Fade - To blend or blended colors.
Front, to - To hassle someone, to want to fight.
Hip Hop - The culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s that created the graffiti culture as we know it now.
Homemade - A type of homemade marker made out of old deodorant containers stuffed with socks or felt chalkboard erasers and filled with ink.
King - An experienced, dedicated, and prolific writer, also referred to as king of the line.
Krylon - A brand of spray paint easily recognized by the distinctive five-spot logo. Most favored by writers because of its large color selection and cheap price.
Piece - A full color masterpiece done over a significant amount of time with a great deal of planning and usually more than one writer.
Panel - A piece painted onto the side of a train.
Rack, to - To steal, usually paint.
Solids - Compressed oil paint sticks.
Stickers - A form of tagging, most commonly saying "Hello, my name is." Can be anything from computer-generated, clear, generic blank stickers with the writer's name on them to elaborate stickers with little pieces and characters.
Tag - Stylized signature done quickly, in many areas, and on many surfaces. The most basic form of graffiti, a writer's signature with marker or spray paint. It is the writer's logo. His or her stylized personal signature. If a tag is long, it is sometimes abbreviated to the first two letters or the first and last letter of the tag. Also may be ended with the suffixes one, ski, rock, em, or er.
Tagger - As opposed to writer, this term is usually used to refer to those who only do tags and throw-ups and who never piece. Some taggers seem to like more destructive methods such as scribers and sandpaper in addition to markers and paint. Some taggers get interested in piecing, and some do not. Taggers who never piece are sometimes called scribblers by more experienced piecing writers.
Textas - Ink markers often with a broad tip. They are often filled with ink mixed by writers themselves from various staining elements.
Throw Up - An outline of a name or a few letters usually outlined in one color and roughly filled in with another.
Toy - An inexperienced or incompetent writer.
Wildstyle - A complicated construction of interlocking letters. A difficult style that consists of lots of arrows and connections. Wildstyle is considered one of the hardest styles to master and pieces done in wildstyle are often completely undecipherable to non-writers.