What are your unwritten rules?

Published on: May 10th, 2021 | Written by: Bad Guy Joe

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After seeing that NYC museum train tagged up a last week, I gotta ask: What are your ethics?

Before we start it is worth mentioning Albert Anastasio. He was NYC’s mob boss back in the 1940s. His crew killed over 700 rivals. We’ll get back to him later.

While graffiti and exploring are different vibes, we play in the same areas, and what happens with one might affect the other.

Graffiti has unwritten rules. Tagging up civilian’s houses and random peoples cars are generally a no no, and for good reason. When you mess with people’s property they might try to kill you. Back in 1991 this dude Mala was hitting the side of a house in Astoria when the owner came and threw him off the roof, breaking his leg. Mala got arrested at the hospital, charged for graff and so far as I know never picked up a can again, the homeowner got off free.

Urban exploring also has its share of debate about ‘ethics’, only significantly more farcical. Many early ‘urban explorers’ adopted Ninjalicious’s ‘take only photos’ rule, while me and my crew were the bad actors on the scene. We made no secret about our NYC Rules: looting shit from abandoned buildings, both as trophies and as a means to eat. The privileged pearl-clutchers hated us. They were also mad that we hit way more spots and went far harder than they ever did, but that’s another story. Most of them cats don’t even explore anymore.

I’ve always known my ethics, my guiding exploring principals. They’re simple: If a spot is abandoned take whatever you want. It’s all going to end up in a landfill otherwise. If it is historic maybe there is a preservation group or museum that will take it. If a spot is abandoned and tagged, or very likely to be tagged up, go ahead and paint whatever you want. If no one seems to know a spot is accessible, don’t tag it and keep your mouth shut about it. Some things are best never posted online, or at the very least posted a decade or more after the fact.

Your mileage will vary. How you approach exploring or graff or anything is entirely up to you. What you do is really none of my business, until it’s not.

That brings us back to the museum train—sure any train can be a viable graffiti target, but one that is maintained by volunteers? Volunteers who are very chill who don’t need to be shit on like that? Nah mate. I’m not a transit museum volunteer but I’ve done volunteer work for another rail museum and trust me, they don’t need the bullshit of cleaning up your ego cock waving trash. Stick to the clean trains. Don’t shit on volunteers who already have too much work and not enough resources. When you are an old ass motherfucker you’ll appreciate that someone saved and maintained all this stuff.

All I know is what has worked for me. Will I ever regret pilfering five digits worth of product from a long abandoned building and using the money to feed myself? Nope. Will I ever regret saying nothing about some great adventures until long after the statute of limitations has passed? Nope. I don’t need the real time fame. Will I ever regret not swiping stuff or fucking with spots that would result in someone who worked there being fucked over? No again. I don’t need the hassle of more enemies. That bus is overcrowded already, and I’m sure a bunch more are going to try to pack in after this post (Have fun back there, ya angry sausages).

Just don’t forget what happened to Albert Anastasio. He was the king of NYC crime and feared or respected by everyone until he had some random civilian murdered for fun. That crossed a line in organized crime circles (no killing of random people not doing crime). Other mobsters started to question his sanity, and they eventually assassinated his ass in a midtown hotel. The gunmen were never caught, and not many people went to his burial. .If you pull some dirty shit, even other criminals are gunna look at you a little funny.

We all drawing up these ethical lines. We all got unwritten rules, and if you cross enough lines with enough people, it might not work out so well for you in the long term. That’s not a threat, it’s just reality. I don’t write the rules, you do. Your fellow writers and explorers do. Fuck around with enough of them and you might find out.

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