![Julio 204](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Julio_204.jpg)
JULIO 204 was a
Puerto Rican resident of
Inwood who wrote graffiti in his youth. He was not the first graffitist to write in New York City, even though he's usually credited as being the original New York City writer and the inspiration for
Taki 183
TAKI 183 is the "tag" of a Greek-American graffitist who was active during the late 1960s and early 1970s in New York City. The graffitist, whose given name is Demetrios, has never revealed his full name.
Biography
TAKI 183 was a graffiti tagge ...
. He started writing his nickname in his neighborhood as early as 1968. He retired when he was arrested for vandalism in the summer of 1970.
Julio lived on 204th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of
Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park (110th Street), ...
, and was a member of the
Savage Skulls. In 1971 the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' published an article about another graffiti writer with a similar style of including their street number in their tag, Taki 183.
According to the article Julio had been writing for a couple of years when Taki began tagging his own name all around the city. Taki also states in the article that Julio "was busted and stopped". Julio 204 kept his tags localized to his own neighborhood, and never rose to the height of fame as Taki, who was the first to go "All City".
References
Further reading
*''Style: Writing from the Underground. (R)evolutions of Aerosol Linguistics''. Stampa Alternativa in Association with IGTimes, 1997. .
*Gastman, Roger, Ian Sattler, and Darin Rowland. ''Freight Train Graffiti''. Harry N Abrams Inc, 2006.
* Naar, Jon. ''The Birth of Graffiti''. Prestel 2007.
*Austin, Joe. ''Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City''. Columbia University Press 2001.
External links
{{Street Art
American people of Puerto Rican descent
American graffiti artists
Anonymous artists