Taki 183
Taki 183 (real name Demetrios, a Greek-American kid from Washington Heights, NYC) is widely credited as one of the first graffiti writers to gain national fame. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he started writing his tag — “TAKI 183” — all over New York City. The “183” came from 183rd Street, where he lived.
What made him famous was that he didn’t just tag his neighborhood — he hit the entire city. Subways, buses, tunnels, even Manhattan office buildings. His tag was everywhere. Then in 1971, The New York Times ran an article titled “Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals”, which blew up graffiti culture into the mainstream. That article basically ignited the tagging movement across the U.S. and beyond.
Taki wasn’t the first to ever tag, but he was the first to be recognized as the symbol of the movement — the spark that made kids everywhere grab markers and spray cans to write their own names.
So in short — he’s like the godfather of tagging. The original name bomber.
You could say every graffiti writer since then is, in a way, a descendant of Taki 183.