Comuna 13 Graffiti Vocabulary: Tags, Throw-Ups, Pieces, Lettering, Characters and Murals

Tag

A tag is the writer’s signature or alias. It may look simple, but experienced writers develop distinctive handstyles. Tags are useful clues to who is active in an area, especially when the same name appears repeatedly.

Throw-up

A throw-up is larger and faster than a tag, commonly built from bubble or simple block letters with an outline and limited fill. The priority is often speed and visibility rather than elaborate detail.

Piece

Short for masterpiece, a piece is a more developed graffiti work with complex lettering, color, outlines, highlights, shadows or characters. It usually requires substantially more time than a tag or throw-up.

Lettering

Lettering is central to graffiti culture. Medellín’s official account of “Somos Comuna” specifically names graffiti lettering as iconic to the area. When you look at letters, notice structure, connections, negative space, outline, fill and whether readability seems important.

Character and mural

A character is a figurative element, whether cartoon-like, realistic or stylized. A mural is a larger planned wall composition and can include lettering and characters but does not need to come from graffiti-writing traditions.

Crew, buff and paint-over

A crew is a group of writers or artists. To buff is to remove or cover graffiti, often by property owners or authorities. A paint-over may be sanctioned or unsanctioned; without context you cannot assume why an older work disappeared.

Why vocabulary helps

The point is not to police terminology. It is to see more. Once you can identify a tag, piece and commissioned mural, Comuna 13 stops looking like one continuous blanket of colorful walls and starts revealing multiple visual practices.

Field notes and deeper context

Two more terms worth knowing A wall or legal wall is a surface where painting is authorized under the relevant rules or owner arrangements. A production is a larger coordinated wall where multiple writers or artists work within a shared concept or palette. You may also hear character for figurative elements that accompany lettering and background for the field that ties a piece together. Do not use vocabulary as a status performance Knowing the words should help you notice technique and ask better questions. It should not turn you into a tourist correcting artists about their own scene. Graffiti terms vary by country, generation and crew. If a local writer uses a term differently, treat that as information rather than an error. The most interesting thing you can learn is how Medellín’s own artists describe their practice.

Why the vocabulary matters in Comuna 13 specifically

Visitors often use “graffiti,” “mural,” “street art” and “painting” interchangeably. That is understandable, but it blurs important differences in authorship and intention. Casa Kolacho explicitly places graffiti inside a broader hip-hop culture alongside rap, DJing and breakdance. Medellín’s recent Latidos biennial likewise distinguishes graffiti writers, muralists, artists, collectives and training processes. The language is not academic fussiness; it reflects different practices.

Knowing a few terms also improves conversations with guides. Instead of asking, “What does this mural mean?” about every wall, you can ask, “Is that a writer’s piece or a commissioned mural?” or “Is that name a crew?” Those questions are more likely to produce useful information.

Tag: the basic signature

A tag is a writer’s stylized name or signature, usually executed quickly. It can be as simple as a marker line or as controlled as a repeated calligraphic identity. Tags are the foundation of graffiti writing because they establish presence and repetition.

Tourists often dismiss tags as “just scribbles” because they are smaller than murals. From inside graffiti culture, however, the tag is closer to a logo, signature and handwriting system combined. Look at how the same name changes across surfaces, tools and scale.

A tag also helps with attribution. If you see the same signature near a larger piece, it may identify the writer more reliably than a guide’s memory.

Throw-up: speed with more volume

A throw-up sits between a tag and a full piece. It usually uses larger bubble-like or simplified letters, often with a fill and outline, and is designed to be executed relatively fast. The form rewards economy: a recognizable name with a small number of motions.

On a heavily curated tourist route you may see fewer classic throw-ups than in other urban graffiti environments because walls are often reserved for murals or commissioned interventions. That contrast itself is informative. It tells you how tourism and permission shape what survives visibly.

Piece: when lettering becomes a composition

Piece is short for “masterpiece.” In graffiti writing it generally refers to a more developed, time-intensive work centered on a writer’s name. Pieces can involve complex letter construction, multiple colors, shadows, 3D effects, characters and backgrounds.

The important point is that a piece can be highly pictorial while still being fundamentally about letters. If you cannot read the name, that does not mean the letters are incidental. Writers may intentionally distort them through extensions, overlaps and style.

Wildstyle and letter complexity

Wildstyle is a broad term used for highly interlocking, complex graffiti lettering. Arrows, connections and extensions can make the name difficult for an untrained viewer to decipher. The point is not necessarily legibility to everyone. Style, movement and recognition within graffiti culture can matter more.

Use the term carefully. Not every angular piece is wildstyle, and guides sometimes apply the label too freely. If an artist or writer identifies a style differently, use their terminology.

Character, portrait and figurative mural

A character is a figurative element used within or alongside graffiti writing. It can be cartoon-like, realistic, symbolic or invented. A portrait mural places a face or figure at the center of a larger composition. These are especially common in tourism imagery because faces read quickly in photographs.

Comuna 13 also has artists whose portraiture carries specific historical content. Medellín has documented Jomag Ariza’s representations of campesino and Indigenous faces in relation to migration. In that case, “portrait” describes the form, while migration and identity describe the documented subject matter.

Crew and collective

A crew is a group of graffiti writers who share an affiliation, often represented by initials or a name. A collective is a broader organizational term that may include muralists, designers, musicians, cultural managers or educators as well as writers. The terms are not interchangeable.

Casa Kolacho, for example, is better understood as a cultural movement/organization built around hip-hop and community work than simply as a graffiti crew. That distinction helps explain why the original Graffitour combined visual art, oral history and cultural education.

Buff, paint-over and rotation

To buff graffiti is to remove or cover it, often with a plain coat of paint. A paint-over can also mean one work being covered by another. In legal or curated spaces, repainting may be planned rather than hostile. A wall can have an accepted cycle of new work.

That is crucial in Comuna 13 because not every vanished mural was “destroyed.” Some works are intentionally replaced. Others are obscured by commerce or construction. Still others deteriorate. Good documentation distinguishes those outcomes.

Muralism, street art and public art

Muralism generally emphasizes a large image composed for a wall. Street art is the broad umbrella most visitors use for unsanctioned and sanctioned visual work in urban space. Public art can include commissioned murals but also sculptures, installations, mosaics and institutionally produced projects.

The categories overlap. The goal is not to win a terminology argument; it is to notice what kind of practice produced the work in front of you.

A vocabulary checklist for your walk

When you stop at a wall, try to describe it before asking for its story. Is the dominant element a name or an image? Can you find an outline and fill? Are there repeated initials that might identify a crew? Is a character supporting the letters or is the figure the entire composition? Has the work been painted over at the edges? Those observations make the guide’s explanation easier to follow.

The vocabulary also helps you notice what tourism filters out. A glossy brochure may show only large figurative murals, while the actual street contains tags, signatures, small pieces, painted shutters and improvised surfaces. The gap between the marketed image and the full visual environment is part of the story.

Do not worry about using every term perfectly. Graffiti language changes across cities and generations, and artists may prefer different labels. The point is to stop treating all paint on a wall as one undifferentiated thing.