A 28-year-old man thought to be a member of numerous tagging crews and responsible for thousands of dollars of damage to city and Metro property is wanted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Tomas Benson, who tags under the moniker "RUETS," was not present at his home when deputies served a search warrant there last week, and the authorities are still hoping to speak with him. more ›

It's a bird! (No.) It's a plane! (Well, yes.) It's sky graffiti! (WTF?) California-based graffiti artist SABER sent skywriting planes over Downtown L.A. today to leave his mark, and the mark of other prominent graffiti artists, in the form of sky tagging. more ›

Say good-bye to the horror of logging on to your computer after a night out only to find pictures of yourself with your fist wrapped around a beer, sweat dripping down your forehead and your mouth forming the word "wooo!" -- the Gods of Facebook have deigned to let us approve photos before they get tagged. more ›

Authorities from multiple agencies banded together to bust 28 suspects thought to be affiliated with a prolific South Bay Tagging Crew. Those suspects are thought to be involved in ASC, or "Art Sex Crime," a crew tied to about $100,000 in damage to the Metro Green Line and local school property, according to the Daily Breeze. At least nine arrests have been made, and more are expected. more ›

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich sought an injunction against the tagging crew known as the "Metro Transit Assassins" in 2010, and today his offices have announced that a judge has "has rejected a challenge" to the injunction. more ›

An outbreak of tagging done recently at Metro's Little Tokyo Gold Line station appears to be linked to a graffiti exhibit running across the street at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. All of the tags were immediately painted over by Metro employees, according to LA Now. The Los Angeles Police Department say they have also been alerted about dozens of other tags that have shown up in the vicinity. more ›

Taggers who leave their marks on public property will soon find their handiwork showing up in a new kind of gallery. City officials and the Los Angeles Police Department are launching a four-division pilot program that will centralize visual evidence of tags to create a database that will be used to gather evidence for prosecution and restitution. more ›

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went after another batch of their "most wanted taggers" this morning when they "executed search warrants across L.A. County Wednesday for members of a tagging crew that's been targeting city buses, trains and other infrastructure," according to KTLA. more ›

The Los Angeles Police Department have announced the apprehension of two "well-known, prolific taggers," following a series of morning raids conducted yesterday in Norwalk, South Gate, and Long Beach. Known for their "ALDOE" and "RUSIA" tags, Aldo and Francisco Montoya are part of a larger tagging crew called On the Run, or OTR. more ›

In a groundbreaking move, the City Attorney's office is seeking an injunction against the members of a tagging crew thought to be responsible for about 500 pieces of graffiti all over the city, according to the Daily News. One such piece is the massive "MTA" tag on a quarter-mile-long section of the L.A. River near Downtown "that cost nearly $4 million to remove." more ›

Jesus Sanchez at The Eastsider LA points out that the city could save money by offering free admittance to high school dances instead of the $1,000 reward given to those who tip off officials to taggers that are successfully prosecuted. At Eagle Rock High School, three taggers have been turned in by fellow students, who received free tickets. We'd argue that if more teens new about the $1,000 reward, the tagger culture would suffer a major blow. more ›

We've seen this before--bacon scrawled on some wall or object on the street--and it makes us wonder if this is some performance artist mocking or making a comment on taggers who take their work so seriously they're willing to kill over it. Tagging, "bacon!" or otherwise, is bad for neighborhoods and the city economy (perhaps you could say it's good for cultural/political debate if done right), but real bacon is something Angelenos are willing to have a heart attack for. more ›

On Wednesday morning a team of LAPD and probation officers, along with Councilman Dennis Zine and the Department of Children and Family Services, conducted tagger probation compliance check operation. 11 West Valley homes of subjects who were on probation, with search and seizure conditions, for graffiti and related vandalism offenses were checked and one person was netted. more ›

A controversial new proposal by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich would give law enforcement the okay to arrest taggers without actually seeing them tag--just the act of "hanging out" together on the street would be enough to haul them in. But those objecting include the ACLU, who call the idea "unquestionably unconstitutional," according to the LA Times. Police, too, aren't sold on the idea, and many other critics wonder if putting more youth into the criminal system--particularly without an actual crime--will do more long-term damage than good, particularly because there aren't enough programs in place to help these kids better their lives. more ›

The Echo Park based artist who made President Obama's iconic poster image pleaded guilty today to three vandalism charges in a Boston Municipal Court. Shepard Fairey was accused of 28 counts of vandalism, but prosecutors dropped 14 charges last month and 11 of them today. "He pleaded guilty to one charge of defacing property and two charges of wanton destruction of property under $250," according to the Associated Press. As part of his two-year probation, he will have to pay $2,000 to a graffiti removal organization and is banned from carrying tagging materials unless he is working on a legal art installation. more ›

Motorists attempting to travel on the 5 Freeway through Downtown this morning were stopped short for over an hour following the death of 25-year-old Jaime Herrera, who was struck and killed by a silver Toyota Camry at approximately 4:30 a.m. Herrera was "running east across the northbound lanes near the Los Angeles River," when he was hit, according to L.A. Now. So what was he doing on foot on the freeway? The LA County coroner's office says he was doing something he sure as hell shouldn't have been: “He had just finished tagging a freeway sign when he attempted to run across the freeway,” explained Lt. Cheryl MacWillie. “There was another friend with him tagging, but he survived.” more ›

Respect, reward and recognition are the three "R's" of graffiti. Cyrus Yazdani, the graffiti tagger known as "Buket" who bragged about his exploits by uploading videos of himself to YouTube, was definitely recognized when he pleaded guilty yesterday to 32 counts of felony vandalism. The 25-year-old San Jose State graduate was rewarded with "to 10 months in county jail, 256 hours of graffiti removal and five years formal probation," found the LA Times. If you're curious, watch two of the videos here. more ›

Time and time again, we hear about well-intentioned people being murdered when they speak up against someone doing graffiti. Case in point, it happened again this week in Hollywood. more ›

Wearing a symbol of your crime on your chest for all to see is at least as old a punishment as Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, and this old school-style discipline is making a comeback. more ›

Steve Lopez has a good knack for getting stories about the City of LA in their stupid moments. The latest is about a family store in Highland Park that was getting tagged by taggers and gangsters on an almost daily basis. The family would clean the graffiti, it would soon come back. So the family hired two respected street artists for $3000 to paint a mural and the tagging stopped. Well, someone complained about the mural and the city sent a letter ordering the family to comply and take the art down (the mural needed a permit). They didn't, so the city painted it for them (in an unmatched color). What almost immediately happened next? Graffiti. more ›

Earlier we did an interview with director Jon Reiss about his graffiti documentary, Bomb It. Here we offer a gallery of photos featuring some of the work and artists featured in the film from all over the world. If you really want to get your graffiti fix on, check out the Bomb It Flickr site. more ›

In 1999, director Jon Reiss brought the electronic/rave scene to audiences with the documentary feature Better Living Through Circuitry. Reiss now returns with another kinetic documentary, this time exploring the controversial art of graffiti in Bomb It. Shot with vivid colors and set to an energetic soundtrack, the film investigates the history of graffiti while profiling artists all over the globe. Featuring old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, and Mear One, the production shot in the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America and Japan. Rather than just a slide show of graffiti examples, Bomb It is an explosive kaleidoscope of artists showing where the state of public space and personal voice sometimes clash and coexist. From sunny townships to dark serpentine tunnels, the film takes audiences along for the ride on guerrilla tagging missions and painting parties. more ›

Back in March, three guys taped themselves scamming Del Taco in order to get free food, which is essentially stealing. They put the whole how-to guide on YouTube, which led to their arrest. more ›

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level of talk going on in the comments: more ›

The title of this article was going to be Moona Lisa. Then I realized I'm not actually 8, but 28. There I am, jumping next to the latest mural by Nick Walker. (Why am I jumping? Check out the Whiskerino Project, but beware: you might be blown away by sexiness. Unless you don't like beards.) This Banksy-esque lady can be found on La Brea, past Edgewood (see map below). Walker is one of four artists pasting and painting all over the city, who always include a link to a website named itsawonderful-world.com. more ›

You're walking in a dark alley. Maybe you are just walking. Maybe you are spraying graffiti. Flash. Beep! Beep! "Leave now!" a voice from somewhere in the dark says.... more ›