Published on December 28, 2003

Digging Down Deep for Graffiti

Masterpiece today, gone tomorrow

By Noah Shachtman

In the mercurial world of graffiti, even the most eye-catching art can disappear, almost instantly. Building managers often sandblast any evidence of perceived vandalism -- no matter how nice it looks. City "beautification" projects wipe adorned walls clean. And in clashes of street egos, graffiti writers relentlessly scribble over each other's best work.

The result is that, over the course of a few years, a single wall or tunnel can hold hundreds of spray-painted renditions of the artists' names, known as "tags." And nearly all of them vanish, with barely a memory left behind.