Spray Paint The Walls: Marc Ecko Has Blood On His Hands

If you ever wondered whether there was risk associated with tagging, know that there is:

The brutal death of a recently Bar Mitzvah-ed Rego Park teenager has once again brought the controversial issue of illegal graffiti into the public’s eye. Ari Kraft, 13, was hoping for fame by “tagging” signal boxes near the LIRR’s Forest Hills station last Friday evening. In the end, he got more recognition than he, his family or friends could ever have wanted for him.

Over the weekend, local and national media were full of the news that Kraft had been struck by a Jamaica-bound train while trespassing on the tracks in between the Woodside and Forest Hills stations. He was with several friends who immediately called the police, but dental records will be necessary to definitively identify him, because his body was scattered by the 45 m.p.h. express train full of over 1,000 commuters.

Cue Peter Vallone, Jr.:

“This incident was a tragedy,” counseled Astoria Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., who publicly lambastes so-called graffiti artists regularly. “Young Ari was hit by a train, but next time one of these kids could fall off a bridge or be mugged at 4 a.m.” According to Vallone, Ari’s case is another example of an otherwise good kid gone bad. “This is even more proof,” he told the Ledger/Star by phone, “that all types of kids can be affected by the commercialization of graffiti.”

Interestingly, some agree:

“I understand why he’s saying that,” said one practitioner of the illegal art, who goes by the tag TRACE, when informed of Vallone’s recent comments. “He’s trying to get mothers on his side.”

Vallone’s comments about another kid possibly falling off a bridge hit home with TRACE, who years ago lost a close friend to just such an accident.

“Getting to a spot that nobody else can get to because it’s dangerous,” he said, “is definitely a part of graffiti culture. It gets your blood running, going into a train tunnel or climbing onto a roof.”

TRACE himself nearly died once when he was scaling a pole to get up to a billboard.

“I was going up real fast like a monkey,” he recalled, “and my hand hit a live wire on the other side and I got electrocuted.” The current caused his muscles to contract and he was stuck, involuntarily gripping the pole harder than he wanted to. “If my friend hadn’t been there to help me down,” he admitted, “I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

“It feels good to see the disgust in their eyes”:

At this point in his life, TRACE is beginning to see, as he puts it, “the other side of the coin.” After a rebellious youth he was lucky to survive, the somewhat settled down tagger says he still doesn’t respect private property, “but I can understand what a guy like Vallone is saying. These companies really do glorify graffiti and kids do get hurt doing it.”