If a human being can have tattoos, then graffiti must be tats for a city.
Among the bars in the Tannery in downtown Fredericton, a hidden space with illustrations and tags emblazoned on the wall is a sacred sanctuary for local graffiti artists.
Cameron Tarrant, a first-year St. Thomas University student and a graffiti enthusiast, thinks graffiti is an important part of the city.
“I think graffiti is a staple for a lot of cities, and Fredericton is no different. Fredericton has graffiti, and just like New York or wherever else, it’s important,” he said.
Right next to White Lotus Tattoo parlour, a huge “East Side” doodle at the entry of an alley welcomes pedestrians who pass by the street. The art marks the best-known spot for downtown graffiti artists.
“This is where the East Side Board Supply used to be, the local skateboard shop,” said Tarrant. “A long time ago when they first made it, a lot of graffiti artists from around Canada, they came to do a bunch of pieces. A lot of these are really big names.”
Graffiti is also a risky business, especially when police patrol the street. The Fredericton Police Force have been looking for vandals who write graffiti on public and private property. Fredericton used to have designated places for local graffiti artists, but those spots are no longer fair game after CBC New Brunswick exposed tags with pictures online and tried to identify the people behind them.
The infamous “Fancy Boys” are a local graffiti crew which has been writing for several years. In the world of graffiti, they have their own language; words like “bomb”, “burn” and “slash” are frequently used to describe graffiti work. They call themselves “writers” to make sure that people around them don’t know what they are saying.
“People on the streets call me ‘G-tex.’ I was interrogated by cops before, but they didn’t have too much information, so I walked away clean,” said G-tex, the oldest member in the Fancy Boys who has been writing on the street for six years.
The graffiti movement is slowly emerging, and people in Fredericton are starting to acknowledge the existence of graffiti and show interest in these street artists.
“[Graffiti] is like proving to the world that you don’t need money or you don’t need anything except your two hands, to prove that you can run the world,” said G-tex.
