Dems hoists himself onto a Dumpster behind a mini-mart. It's time to "rock the heavens" -- climb up on a billboard over I-95.
Shades of graffiti (clockwise from top left): Books makes his getaway; Dems rests under his tag; Books' TV drone and his two soldiers; the handiwork of another Broward tagger
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"You have to have nerve to do it," he says. "When the trucks go by, the sign will wobble a little bit, and it scares you at first."
Dems says he keeps climbing up to the heavens because having his tag seen is the number one priority. "If you can get up on a heaven, then the other taggers coming by, like the ones from Miami especially, they can see your tag," he says. Dems and Trik climb from the Dumpster to the roof of the mini-mart and then run to the other side, crouching and clinking the whole way. From there, they jump to grab the ladder that hangs halfway down the support pole of a billboard. Pulling themselves onto the ladder, they clamber like Spider-Man to the billboard's ledge.
The two boys begin filling in the bubble letters of their tags. It's 2 a.m. on a Thursday and traffic is light, so they're not very worried about getting caught. It takes them longer than it should to finish; from the ground, Most and Sign begin to get nervous. "These guys are amateur and reckless," Sign says while watching Dems and Trik spray the billboard. He says he barely knew them before tonight, but when he heard they were going to be out bombing, he wanted to join the fun. Now, a few hours later, Sign is unimpressed. "They're taking unnecessary chances, staying up there too long, especially with the graf scene as hot as it is now. A lot of guys have been getting busted."
That claim's hard to verify, though. The Broward Sheriff's Office does not track graffiti arrests specifically and doesn't have a task force assigned to combating graffiti. It's not clear if there actually is an increase in graffiti arrests or if it just seems that way to Sign.
Against the billboard, Dems and Trik look like tiny dots of billowing spray paint. As their throw-ups progress, they fill in the bubble letters of their names, adding a "TBA" tag before climbing back down the ladder and retracing their steps across the roof, onto the Dumpster, and eventually back to the ground. They pause for a second to admire their work. "My 'Dems' doesn't look too good," he worries. Trik is also critical of his own name. The two worry that Most and Sign will not be impressed and that their throw-ups will not have the intended effect on taggers driving by.
"When somebody tells you they've seen your tag, it just makes you want to do more," Dems says. "The reason why I do this is to get known. To get the fame. You only get fame from other taggers, but it's like an addiction, yo."
