Deciphering Gang Graffiti
Where graffiti is concerned, the writing truly is “on the wall”. It’s an annoyance, to be sure, but it’s also somewhat interesting – at least the gang-related graffiti, anyway. In many ways, gang graffiti is a code – and like most codes, it’s susceptible to analysis.
Here in the U.S., at least, the first thing one should do when finding graffiti is to look at the letters, if any, and the overall design. If it has “bubble letters”, more than one color of paint or ink, or shows even a hint of artistry, it’s almost certainly not gang related. If it has sharp, angular stick letters, or contains religious (including “satanic”) imagery, or is done in one color of paint, it’s probably gang related.
A lot of times, the graffiti will be very simple, and flat-out say, for example, “West Side Bloods”. That, obviously, is easy to figure out. But what if you see just a series of letters or numbers that don’t seem to make any immediate sense? That’s the fun part, which requires some rudimentary code-breaking skills.
First of all, look for numbers. If you see two digits – especially “13”, “14”, or “18”, you’re probably looking at graffiti for a hispanic gang. If you see three digits – especially if they’re your, or a nearby, area code – it’s almost certainly not a hispanic gang, but your typical prison/street sort. There’s an easy exception to remember: If the numbers are followed by “K”, you’re looking at a threat from a rival gang. “WS18” is a tag for the (hispanic) West Side 18th Street gang out of California; “WS18K” is a threat towards 18th Street by a local gang. (“K” is short for “Kill”.) If there are two digits, see if they’re prefixed by “N”, “S”, “E”, or “W” – (or “NS”, “SS”, “ES”, or “WS”) – which relate to the cardinal directions, and form part of the gang’s identity. Here in the Twin Cities, for example, you see a lot of “S13” tags – they’re promoting “South 13”, or more properly, “Surenos Trece”. You’ll see 13 and 14 a lot in graffiti for hispanic gangs – the 13th letter of the alphabet is “M”, which generally stands for “Mexico” (but sometimes “La Eme”, the Mexican Mafia); the 14th letter is of course “N”, which generally means “North”, or “Norteno”. “Norteno” has nothing much to do with the US-Mexico border; it instead means which end of California the gang originated from. Much like the divide between east-coast and west-coast rappers, gangstas from the north and south parts of California frequently “got beef” with each other.
But what if there aren’t any numbers? What if you come across something like this, and want to know what it means:
This is where the true fun is. At first, it looks like a meaningless series of letters, but after you’ve seen a few hundred, you start to notice some patterns. As any good cryptographer knows, patterns in codes are usually a bad thing – except for anyone who wants to break it. Here are the secrets, such as they are:
As before, a trailing “K” is a threat to “(K)ill”, as are any crossed-out letters. (More on this in a minute.) An “A” at the very beginning pretty much always stands for “Almighty”; it can be safely ignored. Likewise, if the tag ends with an “N”, that virtually always stands for “Nation”; it can be safely ignored. Those two usually occur together, and show up surprisingly often, as pretty much every two-bit bunch of street thugs takes to calling themselves the Almighty Whatever Nation. Looking at our tag above – ACVLN – we’ve gone from five indecipherable letters (a note to a repairman: Air Conditioner, Very Loud Noise?) down to just three, which is a more manageable number.
There are a pretty finite number of “real” gangs in this country, and it’s fairly easy to recognize the abbreviations for most of the most common ones. “GD” are the Gangster Disciples, for example; “VL” are the Vice Lords. “LK” are the Latin Kings, and “LQ” the Latin Queens; sometimes when they’re getting along, they’re the LKQ – Latin Kings and Queens. (And, like every other gang, they’re an “almighty” “nation”, and tag up buildings and fences appropriately – ALKQN.) In our case above, it’s pretty easy to figure out that we’re looking at a tag from the Almighty (something) Vice Lord Nation. The extra letter right before the gang initials probably refers to the “set” name – the specific local bunch of playas, pushers, and pimps who are staking their turf. In some instances – as here – it can provide a little extra information, as well.
Above, I made mention of crossed-out letters in gang graffiti. These aren’t a sign of the author not being able to spell; rather, they’re messages – usually threats. If you see the letters “B”, “C”, “F”, “P”, or “S” crossed-out in a piece of gang graffiti, it’s a threat towards a gang whose name, “nation”, or nickname begins with that letter. B and C are Bloods and Crips, respectively, while “S” is short for “Slobs” – a derogatory nickname for the Bloods. (The Crips are referred to as “Crabs”, incidentally.) “F” and “P” stand for the “Folks” and “Peoples” “nations”, which are sort of loose regional or nationwide alliances of street gangs. In any event, in the Vice Lord tag shown above, you will of course note the letter “C” is not crossed out – which tells you the local Vice Lords don’t have beef with the Crips. This isn’t necessarily huge intelligence, but all too often, little slights in graffiti – crossing out letters, or painting over rival gangs’ tags – are a very real warning sign of impending gang war, so it’s something to keep an eye out for.
So, as you can see, with a few tricks you can whittle a seemingly incomprehensible series of letters down to a more manageable size, and get the gist, at least, of what is being said – you’ve got Vice Lords in your neighborhood! (In this case, the “C” is short for “Conservative”, of all things; the “Conservative Vice Lords” are one of several dozen larger Vice Lord “sets” around the country.) Obviously, this isn’t as challenging as a vignere cipher, but it’s still interesting – and if nothing else, figuring out who’s saying what to whom can help you kill time while waiting for the bus. Besides, knowledge is power, even if it is mostly useless knowledge. Right?
(Edit: There’s more on this subject here, if you’re interested. And here. And here, too.)
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I would like to correct something: they’re promoting “South 13″, or more properly, “Suremos Trece?. Suremos is WRONG!. Surrenos or Sur. Southerns or South. One reffering to the prison gang, Surrenos and Sur reffering to the Street gang in East LA/City of Commerce/Montebello. there is also the “F” and “P”. you failed to mention that the “P” could stand for Piru. The reason I point this out, is the sentence before that you explained bloods and crips, this could confuse new comers. FYI Piru == Crip backwards with the C on it’s back.
Overall tho nice topic, growing up in LA myself traveling RTD (before MTA :)) yeah needed something to read and graphiti was my hobby and past time.
Yeah, it’s incredibly complicated, and for most “rules” there are of course exceptions. Incidentally, you are wrong, too – it looks like it’s actually supposed to be “Surenos”, not “Surrenos”. 🙂 Then again, to be fair, literacy doesn’t seem to be a requirement to join any of these organizations. I’m pretty sure I have a photo somewhere of a tag that says “Suremos 13”, and I know I’ve got photos of two or three different ways to spell “rifenos”. I’ve changed “Suremos” to “Surenos”, though; thanks.
the C is for “conservative.” the CVLs are not really a “local” clique, but a pretty important force in chicago, and around the region.
also, the 13/M connection is also very important for MS13. they aren’t as powerful in your area as they are some places, but nation wide, it is a tag you see a whole lot.
Very interesting…the school I work at was hit very hard last night and the following was tagged everywhere…tell me what you think.
xBLOPx note: the X’s were very small and situated to the lower bottom corner’s of the first and last letters used. The “O” most of the time was a face with two x’s for eyes and a smile.
Steve – good news, of sorts; your school has been “tagged” by a graffiti artiste, not a gang member. As you might guess, the fellow’s nickname is “Blop”. I’m not very familiar with tagger culture, as their graffiti has much less meaning – and thus holds less interest for me – than gang-related stuff, so I don’t know the meaning, if any, of the small x’s, but they’re a quite common embellishment to tags.
By the way, if you think “Blop” is a weird tag, a quite prolific tagger in Minneapolis goes by – or at least used to – the handle “Urine”. Go figure…
Does anyone know what SHAKB might stand for? Our building just got marked last week. (I’m reluctant to say “tagged” because I don’t believe that it’s a real threat right now. There’s that denial!)
Anyway, it’s in one color, looks like a tangle of letters. We’re in a suburb of Detroit — well north of the city. Any ideas?
have new latino neighbors. when they bought the house next door they repainted it. about a week later someone spay painted what looks like BMS on the side of the house that is visible from the street. i could not figure out why they did not paint over it. a young friend stopped by one day and said it was a gang marking. she said it is not a sloppy B, it is 13. there is always a lot of young men coming and going. they are not disruptive but i am uneasy at the thought of gang members next door. they do not bother us because i have 135lb. rottie that does not like them. is this a gang sign? it has been almost a year and the BMS is still there and they painted the garage and left it on the house????
Marie-
Are you sure it’s “13MS” and not “13NS”, or “18NS”? Without seeing a picture, I’m going to guess it’s one of the latter.
Pretty literally any graffiti you see with the number “13” in it is going to be gang-related, so, yeah, it’s a gang sign. Without seeing it, I can’t tell you much more; if it really, truly is “13MS”, then it might be a tag for Mara Salvatrucha, which would be extraordinarily bad. (You could try calling your local police department’s intelligence division; if Mara Salvatrucha are in your city, the police are definitely going to know.)
Hi, can anyone tell me if there is a website that i can go
and decipher gang signs? I am recently out of the military
and i come home to my alley bieng sprayed. I am done with
violence and want to know if this is bad or just kids messin
around.
thanks.
I have a met a guy that does have a 5 pointed star tattooed on his neck with a number 3. He said he was part of Hellorado.. Do you know anythng about that? If so, what type of gang is it?
We are doing some security assessments for government facilities. WE have the following gangs signs around the facility: 13 $T N.C.C.G BK
C-CRUC Thent here is a verticla line with an X at the bottom. What is your best guess as to the makeup of this group?
Dan: “13 $T NCCG” is “13th Street North Coast Crip Gang”, about which Google will provide a little info. “BK” is a threat towards Blood gangs – “Blood Killers”, or similar. C-CRUC is probably the “name” of the person who left the tag (“C-Crook”, phonetically) but could also be an abbreviation for a motto.
The “vertical line with an X at the bottom” sounds like an upside-down pitchfork, which is usually a sign of the “People Nation” – but Crips are usually part of the “Folk Nation”, not the People. I would consider it odd if local Folk/Blood members were just tagging up territory with the pitchfork alone, but it’s probably not unheard of.
I could be wrong about the pitchfork – a photo would really help – but otherwise it sounds like your client’s facilities are in territory claimed by a reasonably well-established Crip set. I have no idea where you are, but I’m going to guess the “makeup” of your local set is fairly typical of Crip sets – predominantly black, with perhaps a small number of white and latino members. (If you search for “NCCG crip” in Google, you’ll find, among other things, a photo gallery of one NCCG member.)
Someone keeps tagging V.P XFLATS. then someone else comes along, puts a line through that then tags VBST13. This is downtown Los Angeles. Is this the Mexican 13th St. gang vs who? They do it daily. They always use a different colored paint than the previous tagger.
Soosie: It’s one of the sets of the Flats (search Google, or even YouTube, for “flats gang” for more info). I’m not too current on all the LA gangs, but the VBST13 is probably unrelated to 13th St – I suspect it should probably be read as (V.B. Street 13), who, if you ask your local law enforcement nicely, are probably a local hispanic street gang. (To be fair, what you’re reading as VB could also be in reality V13, i.e. “Venice 13”… without seeing a picture, though, all I can really do is guess.)
What does C R S with 13 under it mean? Inside the R looks like a little smiley face. Then there is P N Y and XX is under that. Can anyone decipher this for me? It was tagged on a friend of mine’s wall after she called the police for kids turning off her power. Is it a threat?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
This is what I found when ?I googles the nccg ,http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=121100669 funny IF youre local LEO you should be able to keep real good track of all the members with something like this….. As an ex street kid we didnt even allow pictures taken of each other….. This is funny as hell!
be safe out there
Something I find really interesting is the kick backs to EMME (mex mafia) I left town (Philly) before the Pagans brought in local banger colors to beef up gang membership, (lucky me) the MM wanted the Pagans to pay street tax and looks like the eventually did…. Do all mexican bangers pay street tax or at least Homage to EMME? Is that a side effect to the Mexican Mafia being so wide spread? Is there any way to choke off the street tax monies getting back to them? And why can’t Rico be used against them all?
be safe out there
I came out of my apartment and in the hallway was a red line painted horizontially in front of my apartment and just mine. I have seen individuals that have gang looking tattoos in the apartments. I know there are gangs located in the area. I was told that this is a form of tagging and could mean that my apartment or I am tagged for a gang related initiation. Can this be what it is?
Hey I wanted to know if I can email you a photo of some graffiti that I think might be gang related. I level in a small town in Tx and the Police just said they would make note of the graffiti. Please let me know
Thanks
Our school has been tagged with a C, line vertically cut through it like a cents sign, and 2 dots on both sides half way down. Can you identify this for me?
Thanks.
to mike. you said piru is crip backwards umm your stupid. piru is a street in compton bloods rep piru. BK is blood Killers. CK is crip killers . if you grew up in LA you would know. to jack the CVL is CHI town VICE LORDS . ALMIGHTY/LATINKINGS/LATINQUEENS. its also rare to see MS mix it up with SURENOS. salvadorians hare mexicans MS only carry the 13 in respect of la emme. also to nemo you wouldnt see 18th street with NS its a SURENOS street.. i dont blame you all i been there done that if you havnt you would never know whats what. im from south cali and grew up in dade county i know whats good. in prison surs and nortes dont mix yo two different places in the end they do under emme but even then the nortenos have their own place in there. ACVL /all come before vice lords/ lords dont rock the 5 point they rock a 6. lords are part of the Folk Nation. 5 points are usually kings for the 5 point crown. pitch forks facing up are Folk Nation and the pitch fork facing down is dissing Folk Nation. Usually a upside down pitch fork with a F on one side of the stick and a K on the other.
Tony…. ACVL means Almighty Conservative Vice Lord. I am a Vice Lord. CVL from the Chi. And we Lords rep that 5 all day. You tellin these cats on here that they need to know what they be talkin about. Well practice what you teach G. And We use that five point star. You in LA DON’T be talkin about the Chi bangers like you know it. I got real deal experience with that ish. And I can speak properly if you need me to, sir. Vice Lords are apart of the People’s Nation. Spanish Vice Lords arent down with Latin Kings. In alot of Latin King tags/drawings you see SVLK. In Spanish Vice Lord tags/drawings you see alot of LKK. Thats obvious.
Nemo you did good. If you need help with kids saying stuff that you need checked then notify me. I’m real and Ive done all that. All is well. ACVLN. No love to the Cuz just the kin. 319 Skull Gang. Lawndale rider. QCR Banger. 5 All day.
And so you dont say I’m a fake for being in the 319 the let me clear that up. I reside in Southeast Iowa. And we’re getting alot of people from Chicago movin here lately. So Gang Bangin been on the rise around here.
If any of you need assistance with deciphering Chicago gang graffiti or seeing what it looks like you can check out my flickr page.
And what the CVL above me was talking about is correct.
There is a misconception outside of the CHI that gangs that are part of the People alliance are cool with each other and same thing for the Folks but that isnt the case in the CHI anymore. Now a lot of People nations are bangin against People nations and Folks against Folks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicagocoldwar/
I have a student that always writes K N C
Does anyone know what that means??
LVX3TLS
Does anyone know what this gang symbol represents? Which gang?
Our north Chicago neighborhood was tagged overnight – excessively! Most of them are an M in a circle, however there was also an additional “drawing” on the back of our building – the best way to describe it is picture a simply drawn top half of a flower (3 large petals on top), then a face with fangs hanging down. Which gang is this and any idea what the drawing with fangs might be?
hahaha most of white people dont even know what your talking whith all this gang talk
In the building where I leave we had one teen went to jail last week for carry a knife and dealing drugs in the school. Two day after we saw graffiti on the both side of the building and at the front door (3F). I know we have the Blood and Crips here on the City of Hawthorne, CA. Do you have any idea what that means? This is relate to “fellow” gang member went to jail? Thank you!
We just got tagged but i don’t know what it means, theres 1117 and a triforce sign which i think represents the 3 dots for 13 and i think. I’m thinking it’s a click cuz XIII was on the wall. Just let me know cuz it’s like right around my area and im just wondering cuz it’s everywhere
what does suk 43 mean? someone graffitied or tagged my porch steps with that and being in a bad area with children i dont want to take my chances.
wanted to know what the tagging of 3TK mean. That has been seen in some middle schools. Need to know ASAP
Thanks-
Hi, I’m 37 and grew up in Los Angeles, more specifically the North Easter part of the San Fernando Valley, and was a tagger/piecer in my days.
Fast forward to 2011 and I’m a designer, received my degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, a highly respected and very expensive school of design… it is one of the few schools modeled after the German Bauhaus school of design theory, in which design is distilled to it’s most essential point of “form following function”… an example of this would be the Apple brand of products where the design is so refined it looks simple.
As a classically trained graphic designer I am obsessed – as are most – with typography, including graffiti. The truth be told, my interest in gang graf and tags/pieces/throw-ups in Los Angeles comes from both a cultural and a design point of view.
Being Mexican I was exposed to the typographic obsession that Mexican gangs have refined over the years into often breath taking characters, letters who’s anatomy has been refined sometimes over 6 generations.
I find myself cataloging gang “placas” whenever I travel back up to L.A., or visit family. Often I tell my girlfriend that I’m as obsessed with territorial markings as much as the gangs are, but truly it’s my anthropological side that’s collecting a record of design styles and in a sense keeping a history of the artistic record my culture has left on the city.
Now to be clear, I think gangs are a sad waste of youth and an unfortunate result of poverty, lack of strong parenting, and opportunities/schooling.
I made the most out of my parent’s sacrifice of coming to this country, and educated myself to the best of my abilities thus far, but whatever political or social pov I have on gangs and why they are, the refined aesthetics of their typography is too close to design for me to ignore.
I only catalog Mexican gang graffiti as African-American Asian , and all other gangs have very poor penmanship and do not share same the obsessive/design based aesthetic of creating a family of characters or communicating their megalomania/pride through their use on walls, tattoos, or endless reams of paper (which I grew up witnessing).
Also… the “M” does stand for “La Eme/Mexican Mafia”, but it never stands for Mexico… it stands for “Mexican”. Members of the cholo sureño gangs have a twisted sense of history and misguided, although brilliantly manipulative take on what they see as their indigenous lineage. Having pride in one’s history is great, but these guys have created an almost mythical reputation based on Hitleresque ideas of racial superiority (although the truly racist among Mexican gang bangers is pretty rare). Bakersfield is famously the traditional dividing line between Sureños and Norteños btw.
I have not read the rest of your site, but thank you for allowing me to comment on your post.
P.S. I am sorry for those of you that have had their beautiful neighborhoods ruined by senseless graffiti, if it’s stylized tags you see I pretty much guarantee that the culprit would rather see his work in a gallery than on your walls.
Comming home from class tonight i found the light pole in front of my house tagged with “SCANR *AsBk*” and every other pole on my street marked AsBk. Ive always known scanr to be similar to watching though it could be the taggers name. but ive never heard of AsBk. Does anyone have any information on this? I live in an area thats mostly mexican gangs and it really doesnt look like their style.
Do you know what “ETBS” means
Can anyone tell me what
“o FA o” means?
I had an NA with another A with a line though it tagged on an empty house next door. Also dead rats was written. Can you tell me what gang this is and what dead rats means. Thanks!
IT you need to be more specific to identify that NA and A thing like what hood you live in and state also dead rats means if you are snitching to cops your a “dead rat” not to hard to figure that one out lol
I am the security manager at my food packaging plant and we have now had our third incident of tagging. About a month ago we found over 50 tags in one production room on the walls and equipment that were X10 and X76. They don’t fit the descriptions in the article by the numbers written. They are not artistic in any way but they’re all over, some tags have even been scratched into equipment. We’re in a suburb of the Twin Cities but we have workers that come in from Minneapolis every day. Any suggestions as to who this could be and what we should look for in a potential perp? Any input is appreciated. Thanks.
Heather
We just had some tagging last night on a house up the street and on 2 walls across the street with C.S.PP13, does anyone know what gang or click this belongs to.
Does anyone know what C.S. PP13 mean
Hi, Has anyone ever seen a sign with an upside down A with two X’s above it? They used a stencil to do it and its about 3′ tall. Thanks!
Does anyone know what an asterisk, with an “upward arrow” next to it means? There is a half circle around the bottom half of these symbols as well. The “upward arrow” looks like a capital A without the horizontal line connecting the two slanted lines.
Is there a way to post a picture of “tagging” to see if they mean anything at all.
Large “VC” followed by “VaRR”, roman number II with a small circled X on top of the roman number II and at the end a larger circled X. Right under that set is “C3n4R” followed by another circled X.
It’s in a small tome by the Mexican border.
what about a n then a g like symbol with five dots under it
Hey i noticed a bridge near my school tagged with what appears to be gangs fighting. One gang has a large SP ( I heard from others it could be a SD for satains disciples) they draw larg skulls with upside down peace signs on the center of the skull. Do you know what gang this may be the use many color tags so Im confused. They have what appears to be a devil with horns is a red and a peace sign upside Down, red and blue SP I think and what appears to be a creepy PAC man face saying raging house partys
D.o.A. gonna be killin all ya gangbangers. yall got som little nigga packing 5’s but u depriving them from a future other than sellin saw’d offs n kilo’s
I have been seeing some street (stop) signs tagged in my neighborhood lately with the message 155. Or is it I55? Don’t know. I live in a Hispanic area in Southern Illinois. Is this a hispanic gang? How powerful/organized are these people?
BK Swiss, the S.155 are a latino gang, and it wouldn’t seem unlikely that they down illinois
since it’s only the tag, i see no risk at all
And how powerful organized they are, well, depends on place but trust me, don’t mess with these guys
We have been getting tagged in Steger, IL for a couple of years now, all with the same signs….it appears to be an upside down pitchfork, but not like one you have described above in some posts. I have plenty of pictures I can show you, but can’t figure out how to attach it to this comment board. I can’t make out what the letters or numbers are…on the tag of our garage, the neighbors garage, and the neighbors fence a couple of years ago it included some letters or just the “upside down pitch fork”. Now on a new neighbors garage door, the entire door was tagged with just the upside down pitchfork. Any thoughts?
K can also stand for Krew or Klan……
on a quiet and graffiti-free street in humboldt park chicago (believe it or not) my fence in the alley now has this writing: W-W S T (the T has a long stem) LK 1, a 3-pointed crown, and the letters YLO upside down, and a backwards c connected to a K. assume it’s latin kings, but what’s the other stuff? have a pic but don’t know how to upload it
i live in Chicago… their is an old abandon hospital across the street full of new graffiti, it some words look non gang related and say MG and a upside-down pitchfork and are written in bubble letters, some crossed out……others say things like Los 34, MG, and have an upside-down pitchfork but in typical gang writting…. it is written in green, black, red, and white.
i just wanted to know if you thought this was just random tagging or related to the Latin King…. because i live almost a block away from the mackvillie set …. i also know the vice lords are a few blocks away
Hi there…
My fence got tagged with KZ! does that mean anything?
Hi there…
My fence got tagged with KZ! does that mean anything?
Hi there…
My fence got tagged with KZ! does that mean anything?
Hi there…
My fence got tagged with KZ! does that mean anything?
In Lawndale, CA – graffiti SELOKI SALOR. Does that mean anything? Thanks
how do I get a, or is there even a standard gang alphabet and symbols available/
To the security manager at the plant in the twin cities.
The perp is likely an elderly white woman and in no way looks like a wet back.
5H P 3# e70m*wI2U3AsZ’Sw a mz Fv=w@e* ht Xe n2t Ra> B7 E@K /iP? 0q o74 BLULAs-cD” i what dose this mean
My 72 y/o sister lives in Lancaster, CA, and has found two green Xs on her sidewalk, one on each side of her yard. She called the police who said they’re probably city utility worker’s markings but they (the city) came by to inspect and confirmed that they did not leave the marks.
No other symbols or letters are there.
What can be done to see if these are gang-related and if they indicate a threat to her?
Thanks for your help.
My block wall was tagged last night. Can someone tell me what VXIIIR Block (was crosed out) killers means?
Should I be concerned?
i been around graf for a minute now an have rarely seen so called “gang graffiti” ppl have been brainwashed by the police, i have figured out its a tactic they use to get the community behind them… ppl are afraid of gangs not the harmless non violent artists they actually are….the one thing you got right is if it has any artistic value it is def not gang related, this includes Tagging, which is at the heart of every graf artist its how they learn to use spray paint….it just makes me mad when police turn artist to gangmemebers when really its the total opposite, troubled kids turn to art instead of gangs, so in a way the police are actually doing the opposite of what they think they are doing by not letting graff artist do their thing…every city should atleast have some legal spots..
and to maria, if you dont know what it means then why would you be concerned? its a msg to the ppl who knows what it means..and think about it if someone was really willing to do something they wouldnt spray it on the wall they would actually just do it….intimidation at best..mostlikely a 15yo kid being ignorant
i noticed S (6 PNT STAR) D wondering if it has any meaning? Thank you
this is laughably some of the most ignorant text on the internet i have ever seen in my life. so much so that i actually took the time to write this comment instead of just hitting the back button. you, mr. author, are a waste of binary code.
Santa cruz, ca. We have, ms13, x13, x14, kt$a, sur, norte, just to mention a few of the ones ive seen around.
This is all very interesting, as I think we are just trying to learn from each other, and look to the ‘writers’ and artists for any answers they can provide. I’m a railfan in Idaho and photograph train cars with graffiti and tags, so my interest is in where the art was done and by whom. I’m trying to determine who uses the tags PS and P$ on a boxcar that also shows a person wearing a shirt with a capital A inside of a circle. The person’s right hand is over one of the PS tags and the left hand is giving the peace sign. I’ve also photographed cars with AMFM, and would appreciate any ideas or information. Thanks
Hi, my name is Brianna i am doing something for gangs and this was a really helpful sight
http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/207304431.html
http://gazette.com/cactuses-tagged-with-graffiti-in-park-near-tucson/article/feed/4113
Can anyone help with this vandalism in the national park?
Thanks.
Does a spray painted work RAKE mean anything, with s curvy arrow pointed down? 3 dots before word, 2 dots after?
what does this mean E$P, just curious saw it in our neighborhood as I was walking the dog
But Lord…no one cares what you have to say because thankfully, people like you die before age 30. So that day that your mom finally gets her wish and you are killed, that is the last time anyone has to deal with you. Your kids are ashamed of you, and no one cares about you. You are a little bitch.
I live in South Orange County CA and ive seen ETXCM and El Toro Familia Mafiosa with all the a’s upside down tagged on walls and under bridges. any ideas??
I have a question for you. Yesterday my blue civic was vandalized. Whoever did it, slashed all four tires, shattered my driver side window, and etched SA into the paint of the driver side. I was parked at my dad’s in San Jose, CA. My question is could that be gang related? Someone I know had a theory that SA was gang related and that the area I was in is mostly “Blood”. What do you think?
In my area I’ve been noticing ELE M-A, EL M-A, or just M-A. I can’t seem to find out any information on these letters. I did notice the M which is the “13” in the alphabet but with the -A it would show up “13-1”
Would anyone have any information on these taggings? I’m in the Chicagoland area, west suburbs.
i had a problem with a guy in a bad area huntington park ca and the bldg i stay at right under my window was a painting of a dead pig with the eyes x out and a frown for a mouth ! is that a warning or something ? please respond if you can help . thank you ! btw my car was broken into the same night.
I work security for a Dallas hospital and a few days ago a tag appeared that I can’t decrypt. I can send you the pic I took but I’d at a loss if I tried to describe it. Any help would be appreciated.
I found grafitti that says VA POI and SBT and RGB also seeing a triangle with dots, what does that mean???? Also some references to RIP FROGGY.
I’m in Panama… the country, not the city in Florida, and we’ve had some youth gangs coming up from the neighboring city, Ciudad de David since a new road was built. It’s a slim chance anyone on here has insight into latin gangs here, but we had our front gate tagged (not very large, seemed like a message to mark our house). Although we couldn’t decipher all of it, the word (spelled in this way, not the way the band spells it) METTALLICA with some other symbolS. To the left of this, directly next to our entrance gate there was an X with a five-pointed star above it. Unfortunately, I washed it off this morning before taking a photo. Any educated guesses on the meanings or gang name of this tag?
Thanks in advance.
I came home to ” hts ” tagged on my fence. I am in Fresno
Does anyone know what this could mean.
Conservative Vice Lords…OMG, I’m laughing my head off! I know nothing of gang culture, really, so I’m picturing some homeboy dissing liberal economic policies and saying things like, “Yo, dudes, I just be sayin’ that I shouldn’t have to use my hawd-earned coke dollas to pay fo’ my bitches’ health care. Dat shit’s f***ed up, yo.” Say it out loud and you’ll be laughing too!
was wondering if any one knew what HKLS means. this was spray painted on a friends window, in northern indiana
Does anyone know if a sideways R means anything in particular ?
Yes about the sideways R sometype of group attacked a poor inasant lady’s 4yr old horse marking the sideways R on everything including the horse please let me know if it means anything particular this really has me courios
Yes, I was going to ask about the sideways R in regards to the horse being tagged. It’s awful!
I live in the country and the 21 post marker was tagged and the curbside as well–I believe it is BUSE? or BUSCE?
the graffiti I spotted on sidewalks and streets is blue and white, a six-pointed star above two stripes that are like the 3 stripes of a sergeant in the army…..I’ve never seen it before….can you identify>
I noticed that the back window on my car was marked with the what looks like
“S.P.I” Then either “R.R” or “RxR”
Just curious if this is anything anyone has seen or what it means.
Thank you
There graffiti accross the street it has Large S with line thru it in Red, What does that mean?
There is a lot of tagging happening in our town it is SSL 13 with three dots below the number. There is rival activity as well the Xing out and what looks like RDS with four dots and now what appeares to be a Arian eagle as well. This is all happening within the last year or less. One other thing they tag is fuck chaps in blue paint same as the SSL13. What should be thought about all this. As far as I know the police don’t seem to be doing much. ?
Just curious to what TRN stands for- have been seeing alot of this lately on buildings.
Does anyone know what the tag ‘crabbe banana ‘means? Thanks.
My sidewalk has been tagged twice with W5ETWQR and some other markings but I am not able to tell what they are, I can send you a picture if that will help.
I live in Modesto, CA.
Someone entered our locked building climbed up 3 flights and went out onto my patio area and painted in a light blue “SiN (looks like an N)” and then drew and arrow going in a West to East direction pointing downward……….. I live in Rochester NY. What does this mean?
Recently found spray painted on a board on the wood pile spray painted black 9 with 3 small dots in front of it. It was not there before. Is it targeting us to rob us or something?
I live in Lancaster CA. I have a sliding glass door in my backyard. Someone came into my backyard and wrote on my sliding door _NX3 Scary that someone was in my backyard to begin with… But confused as to what that would mean?? Please help!!
gang graffiti is a way to live and die. In my hood we banged piru 9th st clippers. for laclippers
9th street and piru bloods. APGKBN almighty gangsta killa blood nation
I lived in California, New York & Chicago as well. I’m my personal opinion , to whom ever wrote that topic of gang affiliation ….. If you’ve never been a gang member , you wouldn’t understand the life style or the meaning, graffiti , or pretty much Not a clue , so before they go posting anything on www. I suggest that you do further research .
Y.D.K.
Deeeeeeez Nuuuuuts in da house!
DN 2K16
What is N of R mean?
Ive noticed nortenos graffiti in my neighborhood that used to be decent crossed out with a blue 187. I’m guessing this is Mexican mafia related but this used to be safe neighborhood