Why Every Graffiti Artist Must Learn Tags First (And What Happens If You Skip Them)

When most new graffiti artists get started, they dream of painting big, bold throwies or wild, intricate pieces. But here’s the hard truth: skipping the basics almost guarantees failure. If you want to master graffiti, you can’t skip learning tags. Handstyles are the foundation of graffiti art, and without them, everything else, throwies, pieces, even wildstyles, will fall apart. In this post, we’ll break down why learning tags is so important, what skills they teach, and why ignoring them can hold back your growth as a writer.