New York MTA Transit Vest

Working in the New York subway train yards, tunnels, and lay-ups, graffiti writers have traditionally been wary of the police and the subway workers.  If a writer is slow, he or she is at greater risk of getting caught.  One 15-year-old writer named OZ compensated for his lack of speed by disguising himself as a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) worker.  He wore the dark blue regulation style raincoat of the MTA and used an attaché case to carry his paint.  If the police showed up, he would walk away slowly to not cause a scene. A graffiti writer named Smith used this MTA vest to walk by workers in yards and tunnels without being hassled. This style of vest is no longer used by the MTA.

According to graffiti writer Lady Pink, who is Smith's wife, older white graffiti writers rarely had to disguise themselves as young Black and Latino minority writers did. They more easily passed as figures of authority and sometimes came off as transit workers or cops even without the uniform. Black and Latino youth, on the other hand, were often profiled as suspects due to the prevalence of racial stereotypes about them.