Here is a Graffiti Translator, If your new to the scene this should help you understand better what a writer means when he is talking.
This list isn't complete but is pretty comprehensive. Before you start writing we recommend that you read and study this list. If you are just looking for a single word press Ctrl + F and type it in. Ripped and Pasted from Graffiti.org and PureGraffiti.com
All City: When a writer gets up in and out of their city. A writer or crew must have a tremendous amount of ups to be considered, "All City."
Back in the Day: If you don't know what "back in the day" means, you are mentally retarded. We refuse to post a definition. If you are still stupid you can go to artcrimes.com they give all you morons a definition for that one.
BackGround: Backgrounds originally came about with subways and walls. Backgrounds were painted to go over tags or just to make the piece stand out, to go over anything that may make the piece hard to discern, also backgrounds are used today to add to the piece and make it more appealing.
Back to Back: Wall, freights, that are pieced completly from one end to the other. Also, it refers to throw-ups being placed one after the other on a wall, freight, etc. (also known as End to End).
Battle : This takes place when two writers or two crews disagree on an issue.For example if 2 writers are writing the same name, a battle may take place to drop names. The winner of the battle will get to keep his/her name. The loser is expected to get a new name. A battle can be in the form of one writers/crews skill against another writers/crews skill or which writer/crew can get "up" more than the other. The judging is always done by an outside crew, or writer. Battles always have a time limit that the writers/crews agree to prior to starting the battle. Losing payment can come in the form of dropping names, dropping crew names, paint, etc, etc.. Whatever they agree on basically.
Bite: This means when you toys out there come to our site and open a flick you think is pretty fucking dope, you then grab your pen and pad and start copying what you see. This is called BITING off another artists/writers original work. This is also known as Jocking, or my personal favorite "Dick Riding." Those who Bite are considered to be a toy, if your a toy and do not know what TOY means please see "toy" in the puregraffiti.com glossary for a full explanation.
Blockbuster: Huge Block Lettering of a writers name or their crews name, usually consisting of two colors, ussually done to go over tags, or other writers and crews works, used a lot just to get recognized, you know to look like your big time! Mainly invented to cover whole trains easily. Blockbusters are ussually done using a paint roller and a lot of paint, another purpose is to make it so huge that it can be seen from a long distance. Puregraffiti.com "special" toy tip: Buy a paint roller, go to home depot and buy the huge paint buckets of the colors they fucked up on when mixing. It is a lot cheaper and you can have a lot more blockbusters floating around that way!
Bomb/Bombing: ussually consisting of 2 colors, or 1 color if refering to a "throwie" (toys,see throwie.) Bombing is ussually done with original style bubble type lettering that is filled in and then outlined, with another color of paint and maybe adding a drop shadow. Many forms of bombing. But filling in your bomb makes you .001 less of a toy! So, go out and fill in those throwies!.
Bubble Letters: Originated from "back in the day", old skool graffiti lettering. Seen mostly in bombing and throw ups because of the rounded shape of the lettering, making it easier to form and faster to put up and be gone!
Buff/Buffing/Buffed: To buff means to paint over any form of graffiti, ussually done by the cities anti graffiti enforcment, or members of community service, or the owners of the private property. Buffing, is the process of taking a paint roller or any other type of tool to go over graffiti and no longer make it visible for the time being .(haha) Buffed- meaning graffiti has been already buffed gone over whatever, we think you get the point.
Burn: Refers to a well done piece, or to beat ("burn") the competition.
Burner: Originally a well-done wildstyle window-down whole car, a burner is a very good piece. Obviously, the reference to a window-down car is not applicable for pieces that are not on trains. Nowadays, burners are associated with a wildstyle piece, nearly impossible to read, its not burning if you can read it!
CalTrans: The part of the government in charge of freeways in Southern California.
Cap, Fat or Skinny (tips) : Interchangable spray-can nozzles fitted to the can to vary the width of spray. These are usually racked off of commercial products, such as K-Mart's Bug and Tar, various cleaning products or starches. Many stores and graffiti fanzines sell caps nowadays. Also referred to as "tips" (as in "flare tips" and "thin tips".) The really big fat caps are sometimes called "softballs" because of the wide and soft-looking spray they produce. Tips are sometimes referred to by a certain number of fingers, corresponding to the width of the spray (for example, a "four-finger spray" would be about as wide as your hand. The number on the front of a tip is the catalog number for that model.
Character: Cartoon figure (usually, but not necessarily) taken from comic books, TV 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. Se
Cloud: Stylistic form applied to pieces. Used mainly back in the days. Also a form of background design. See background in the glossary for more information.
Crazy: a word everyone uses! Has nothing to do with graffiti and should not be in a graffiti glossary, for the definition of "crazy" according to Crazy morons, please see the artcrimes graffiti glossary!!
Crew: A group of tightly nitched folks with a plan to DESTROY THE UNIVERSE, ok ok just kidding, more like destroy every location they come across, (applying to hardcore crews only). Crew names are initialed and added to pieces, bombs, whatever of a member of the crew. Usually consisting of 2 to 4 ..less or more letters when initialed. And words when not. The letters can stand for many different crew type slogans! Members of a crew ussually paint together. The crew name is also sometimes put up large, as in blockbuster form or bombs,throw ups, tags, to give the crew name, and writers recognition.
Cutting Tips: A way of modifying caps, to spray fatter, or to make flare tips.
Cutting Lines: A painting technique used on inside fills of letters and characters to get thin lines, thinner than thin tips.
Dis: You are a fucking toy, dick riding mother fucker.. Oh shit.. you just got "dissed" and learned the definition at the same time!!! what does artcrimes.com have to say about that definition!!!
Def : how old skool writers,hip hop dudes used to say dope,sick,sweet,ill, etc...etc.. Some one will probably look at you with big eyes if you say it today.. Unless your 62 years old.
Ding Dong: A flat subway car easy to buff, since it was um FLAT. Not many painted Ding Dongs, because of the easy buffing.
Dope: Originally a rap/hip-hop term that means "cool". puregraffiti.com is DOPE! Damn you once again got the definition out of an example.. Can only get that off puregraffiti.com.. cause were so fresh and so clean.. or something like that.
Down: To be in with, part of the group, crew, or action (as in "your down with us"). Kinda means, your cool with us, you can't say it if we don't agree though. Down is also when your standing up and you look um down? Is it just me? or are these definitions getting more confusing as we go along?
Drips: Stylized drips drawn onto letters to add effect. Although inept paint application causing unintentional drips is considered the mark of a toy and is wack, stylized drips drawn on letters are acceptable. This style originated early on in New York subway graffiti. Fade: To blend/blended colors.
Fame: What a writer gets when he/she is constantly and consistently getting up. One of the goals of writers is to have fame within the subculture of writers, and some, like Chaka, aim to have fame (or at least be recognized) outside of the subculture.
Fan Spray: A newer type of stock tip on spraypaint cans (used to be only on cheaper brands but almost every company, including Krylon, now sport these on at least one line of their paint) which sprays in a fan pattern that can be adjusted from vertical to horizontal, but is useless for tagging because it looks wack. May be used for fills but the cheezy tips prevent any kind of detailed can control. The tip is not removable for insertion of fat caps.
Fat: Can refer to something being thick, as a "fat line", or can be a general term of good, like "yo, that's fat!" Often spelled "phat".
Female Caps: A new type of tip that is called "female" because the can has a "male" counterpart. Traditional cans are vice versa. These female tipped cans are no good for writers, except maybe for fills, but even that's questionable.
Fill: The solid interior color of letters on a piece or throwup.
Flat: Older slab-sided type of subway car; the most suitable surface for painting. This term refers mainly to subways, although it could refer to certain types of freight cars as well.
Flicks: Prints of photos of graffiti. Also "flick" (singular) and "flix" (plural).
Fly: Cool, same as "fresh". Early hip-hop term.
Fresh: New, cool, good. An early hip-hop term.
To Front: To hassle someone, to want to fight. For example, "You frontin' on me?" Also a hip-hop/rap term. Probably comes from "confront".
Getting Up: Originally, "getting up" meant to sucessfully hit a train. Now it means to hit up anything, anywhere, with any form of graffiti, from a tag all the way up to a wildstyle burner -- although the term implies the process of tagging repeatedly to spread your name. Tagging something once would be getting up, but would not make you an "up" writer.
Going Over: One writer covering another writer's name with his/her own. Also known as "X-ing out" or "crossing out". "Crossing out" is usually just that, painting an X over another writers tag or piece. In the early days of New York graffiti, Cap was the master of doing black and white throwups to go over people. There was even a crew called TCO (the cross outs), whose main goal was to cross everyone out. See also "blockbuster letters".
Griffin: A type of shoe dye used in homemade markers.
Grocery Store Ink: A kind of purple ink used by grocery stores in their marking guns. Writers took this ink to put in their homemades and refillable markers. Writers from back in the day swear by it because of its permanence.
HipHop: The culture in the late 70s and early 80s that spawned the graffiti culture as we know it now, breakdancing and hip-hop music, which has since turned into modern rap music.
Hit: To tag up any surface with paint or ink.
Hit Up: When something is covered with tags.
Homemade: A type of homemade marker made out of old deodorant containers stuffed with socks or felt chalkboard erasers and filled with ink. Homemades have been made out of many things, including (most commonly) various deodorant containers all the way up to VHS videotapes. (!) Homemades have also been called "mean streaks," although this has no relation to the paint stick made by Sanford corporation.
Homemade Ink: A kind of homemade ink made for your homemade marker. The basic recipe involves shredding carbon paper and mixing it with alcohol and/or lighter fluid. Said to be almost as good as grocery store ink.
Icy Grape: An old, discontinued Krylon color that is prized by writers when the odd can turns up.
Insides: Originally referred to tagging the insides of subway trains. Now refers to the insides of any mass transit vehicle. For example, "He's the king of insides" would mean he's really up on the insides.
IRT: A train line in NY that had many burners because its cars were all flats.
Jungle Green: Another old, now discontinued Krylon color that writers go crazy over.
Karak: Same as "character".
Kill: To hit or bomb excessively. To really get up in a major way.
King: The best with the most. Some people refer to different writers as kings of different areas. King of throwups, king of style, king of a certain line, etc.
Krylon: A brand of spraypaint, easily recognized by the distinctive 5-spot logo. Most favored by writers because of its large color selection and cheap price.
Layup: Side tracks where trains are parked overnight and on weekends. Initally used to refer to subway layups, but now can refer to freight-train layups.
Mad: Crazy, lots.
Magnum:A type of fat marker used by writers, not refillable.
Marks-a-lotStandard black magic marker with a tip about a quarter-inch wide. Had its place in the early days of writing (early to mid 70s) but has been discarded in favor of bigger, better markers and spraypaint.
Married Couple: Two cars permanently attached, identified by their consecutive numbers. This is an older subway term from New York.
Mean Streak: A type of paint stick made by the Sanford corporation. Writers like it because it is opaque, waterproof, and is generally a bitch to buff because the base solvent is ethyl glycol. Comes in white, blue, red and yellow. I've never seen black or green.
MTA
Metropolitan Transit Authority. (NYC)
Mural: A large-scale type of piecing, done top to bottom on a wall; usually a large production involving one or two pieces and usually some form of characters.
Old School: General term used to refer to the early days of writing, more specifically, the mid 70s to '82 or '83. Also may refer to hip-hop music of this period. Old-school writers are given respect for being there when it all started, and specific writers are remembered for creating specific styles. For example, Blade and Comet created blockbusters, Phase 2 created bubble letters, clouds, Skeme's "S", and so on.
Outline: The drawing done in a piecebook in preparation for doing the actual piece. Also called a sketch. Can also refer to the outline put on the wall and then filled, or the final outline done around the piece to finish it.
Panel Piece: A painting below the windows and between the doors of a subway car.
PIECE
A graffiti painting, short for masterpiece. It's generally agreed that a painting must have at least three colors to be considered a piece.
TO PIECE
To paint graffiti, creating a piece, not just go out tagging.
PIECEBOOK
A writer's sketchbook where outlines and ideas to be executed are kept and worked out. Also referred to as a "black book" or a "writer's bible".
PILOT
A type of fat marker. Prized because it writes wider than a Marks-A-Lot and is made to be refilled.
PROPS
Respect, comes from "proper respect". From hip-hop/rap.
RACK
To steal, usually paints or markers. In the past, most writers stole all materials used for painting. Due to paint lockups in California and other areas, this is no longer possible, so most paint is now bought.
RIDGY
Subway car with corrugated, stainless steel sides, unsuitable for graffiti. Writers did mainly two-color throwups and some top-to-bottom throwups (one color and silver because silver was hard to buff) on these types of cars. Ridgys ran in Brooklyn.
ROLL CALL
Tagging everyone's name in a crew, or the list of people who helped create it to the side of the piece. Not done very often - tagbangers seem to like doing this.
RED DEVIL
A favorite brand of spraypaint that was quite popular back in the day, but now has wack fan spray for tips.
RUSTOLEUM
A brand of spraypaint, generally more expensive than Krylon.
SCRIBER
A tagging instrument, usually made out of a diamond drillbit, used to physically engrave one's name on buses and mass transit vehicles. Considered by some writers to be more destructive than is needed. Sandpaper is sometimes used to tag buses in the same manner--it too is considered mass destruction.
SCRUB
A certain type of throwup (usually two colors) that is filled very quickly with back-and-forth lines, rather than filled in solid.
SG-7
A type of big marker made by Sakura which is a little bigger than a Pilot, and it too is easily refillable, although it does not state that on the outside. Sakura makes a model the same size called "Pentouch" which is a huge paint marker, complete with a mixing ball inside of it.
SHOE DYE
Shoe dye kits are used sometimes for tagging, especially those that consist of a bottle with a brush/sponge device attached. They usually come in black and white. See "Griffin".
STICKERS
A form of tagging, most commonly saying "Hello, my name is". Can be anything from computer-generated, clear, generic blank stickers that have the writer's name on them to elaborate stickers with little pieces and characters. Some writers consider stickers to be for people who are "afraid" to use markers/paint, while other writers use a combination of stickers with markers and paint.
SUCKER TIPS
The stock tip that comes with a can of spraypaint. So named because only suckers would piece or tag with said tip. That said, lots of old school kings used nothing but stock tips back in the day.
TAG
The most basic form of graffiti, a writer's signature with marker or spray paint. It is the writer's logo, his/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" and "er".
TAGGING UP
The act of writing a signature with marker or spraypaint.
TAGGER
As opposed to "writer"; this term is usually used to refer to those who only do tags and throwups 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 do get interested in piecing, some don't. Taggers who never piece are sometimes called "scribblers" by more experienced, piecing writers.
THIRD RAIL
On New York subway lines, this is the extra rail that supplies the power for the trains. If you touch the 3rd rail, you will most likely die.
3D
A three-dimensional style of letters, used for added effect on basic letters, sometimes applied to wildstyle for an extra level of complexity. This style was invented by Phase 2.
THROWUP
Over time, this term has been applied to many different types of graffiti. Subway art says it is "a name painted quickly with one layer of spray paint and an outline", although some consider a throwup to be bubble letters of any sort, not necessarily filled. Throwups can be from one or two letters to a whole word or a whole roll call of names. Often times throwups incorporate an exclamation mark after the word or letter. Throwups are generally only one or two colors, no more. Throwups are either quickly done bubble letters or very simple pieces using only two colors.
TOP TO BOTTOM
A piece that extends from the top of the car to the bottom, completely covering it. Can also refer to a wall or building that has been pieced from top to bottom. The first top-to-bottom car was done in 1975 by Hondo. Dead Leg did the first top to bottom with a cloud. Others who started rocking the style, and were known for the "T2B's" were Lee, Chain, the Fab5, and later, Newave crew.
TOY
An inexperienced or incompetent writer. Someone whose writing is either wack, who uses sucker tips, or whose style is just plain cheesy. One old definition of "TOYS" is that it stands for "trouble on your system".
ULTRA-WIDE
A type of marker that is extra wide (about an inch and a half), intended for making posters, etc. It too is easily refillable. Often called "Uni-Wide", which is a brand name.
UP
Describes a writer whose work appears regularly everywhere and who is currently writing.
UPS
Refers to people's tags, for example, "So and so's crew has mad ups on main street"
ULTRA-FLAT
A paint preferred by taggers because it sticks to things better than glossy paints.
WACK
Substandard or incorrect (derived from "out of whack"). Anything that looks cheesy or weak. Badly formed letters, incompetent fills, dumb tags, etc.
WET LOOK
No, it's not Jheri Curl, it's an old-school brand of spraypaint. No longer in production to my knowledge.
WILDSTYLE
A complicated construction of interlocking letters. A hard 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.
WINDOW DOWN
A piece done below the windows of a subway car.
WHITE TRAINS
In '83 they started running the white trains on the 6's. Writers loved these cars because they were like canvas all primed and ready to paint.
WHOLE CAR
Obviously a piece covering a whole car. See "top to bottom". This one's by Futura 2000.
WHOLE TRAIN
The masterful feat of covering a whole train with pieces. Two whole trains were done in 1976 by Caine I and two more were done by The Fabulous Five soon after.
WRITER
Practitioner of the art of graffiti.
