Julio 204

Julio 204
Years active	1967 - 1970
Known for	Inspiring Taki 183
Style	Tagging
Movement	Graffiti
Tag

JULIO 204 was a Puerto Rican resident of Inwood who wrote graffiti in his youth. He's usually credited as being the original New York City writer and the inspiration for Taki 183. He started writing his nickname in his neighborhood as early as 1967. He retired when he was arrested for vandalism in the summer of 1970.

Julio lived on 204th Street in the Inwood neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, and was a member of the Savage Skulls. In 1971 the New York Times published an article about another graffiti writer with a similar style of including their street number in their tag, Taki 183. According to the article Julio had been writing for a couple of years when Taki began tagging his own name all around the city. Taki also states in the article that Julio "was busted and stopped". Julio 204 kept his tags localized to his own neighborhood, and never rose to the height of fame as Taki, who was the first to go "All City".

Further reading

• Style: Writing from the Underground. (R)evolutions of Aerosol Linguistics. Stampa Alternativa in Association with IGTimes, 1997. ISBN 88-7226-318-2.
• Gastman, Roger, Ian Sattler, and Darin Rowland. Freight Train Graffiti. Harry N Abrams Inc, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8109-9249-8
• Naar, Jon. The Birth of Graffiti. Prestel 2007. ISBN 978-3-7913-3796-8
• Austin, Joe. Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City. Columbia University Press 2001. ISBN 9780231111423