Julio 204 Explained

JULIO 204 was a Puerto Rican resident of Inwood who wrote graffiti in his youth. He's usually credited as being the original New York City writer and the inspiration for Taki 183.^[1] He started writing his nickname in his neighborhood as early as 1967.^[2] He retired when he was arrested for vandalism in the summer of 1970.^[3]

Julio lived on 204th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, and was a member of the Savage Skulls. In 1971 the New York Times published an article about another graffiti writer with a similar style of including their street number in their tag, Taki 183.^[4] 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

1. Book: Austin, Joe. Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City. 2001. Columbia University Press. 9780231111423.
2. Naar, Jon. The Birth of Graffiti. Prestel 2007.
3. Book: Price, Emmett George. Hip Hop Culture. 2006. ABC-CLIO. 9781851098675. en.
4. News: 'Taki 183' Spawns Pen Pals . New York Times . July 21, 1971 . 37.

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.