by Estria
In 1986 Crayone TWS and Razor KTD first introduced me to the Skinny Cap. Razor was the first to conceive of it.
His original design had two holes in the cap. The inner cup had a big hole and the outer cup had a small hole. This made very clean lines, but dripped paint like crazy.
I took that concept and refined it. Being Japanese, I guess I figured I could improve upon the original design. This technique quickly spread to many parts of the country.
My crew, Together With Style, and our friends were early front runners known for the use of this technique. Back then I don't think we realized that this was unique to the Bay Area.
During this time, my fellow Hawaii counterpart, Slick, was down in Los Angeles developing the Fade and Cut technique and giving his characters a unique airbrushed look. He was taking the LA scene by storm.
I asked Crayone to tell me the story of when he first painted with Hex in LA (circa 1987-88). He said Hex already had the skinny cap, that it was exactly like ours, and that Hex claimed to have invented it. Crayone said it had been in use in the bay for about 2 years by the time he connected with Hex. Hex taught him the Phantom Cap techniques. Crayone came back and showed our crew the Phantom Cap. We could not believe there existed a tip that created a clean, almost stenciled-edge look.
In 2010, I got ahold of Hex, who said that he and his homeboys used to experiment with every cap, nozzle, can with all kinds of ideas like melting them, freezing them, cutting them, and that’s how they came up with the skinny cap. He was 13 at the time, so I figure this must have been around 1981-82.
Hex’s original intention wasn’t for the skinny cap to be used on the streets. They were inventing it to create the look of spray can lines, but on a smaller scale for when they painted on dungaree jackets (early levi type jackets). He didn’t use the cap again for a couple/few years until he started focusing on productions, and saw the use of it for fine detailing.
Within a month of this exchange, I went down to LA and painted with Slick at the abandoned Orbach's building. There Slick shared with me his techniques and I showed him the Skinny Cap. Slick began calling it the Stencil Tip.
These two exchanges forever altered the face of the graffiti world. This is how the Skinny Cap and Fade and Cut techniques spread throughout California.
