TERROR 161 "Twisted" Drawing

TERROR 161 began his career on in 1973 under the name  TARANTULA 235 with a spider icon dominating the virgin territory  of his neighborhood, the Riverdale section of the Bronx.  By 1974 he had developed style and the new name TERROR 161, an homage to the two great writers JUNIOR and CAY 161.  From 1974 to 1977, TERROR 161 and his crew The MOB ( Masters of Broadway ) went to the One Yard – located in their backyard in Riverdale – every weekend. TERROR started a string crude pieces that he began numbering. He hit the insides hard as well.  In 1977 he retired with a reputation as a strong blue-collar writer on the One's – but there were a lot of those, and TERROR 161 wanted more. In 1980 he bumped into his old crew mate AMMO. The two old friends got to talking and before either one of them knew it they were climbing the fence to the One yard with a bag of paint. TERROR changed his name to JAYSON(J.SON for short) and The MOB was back. The older and wiser duo   began to venture onto other lines with writers as diverse as CAP, SEEN, and T.KID 170.  The once prestigious 2 and 5 lines had become a war battlefield. Silver throwies had replaced the colorful burners of the past. Not so on the Six train, an isolated line and safe haven dominated by SEEN and the UA crew.  From 1982-83 SEEN and JAYSON teamed up to do some highly memorable cars in the demilitarized zone.   Although J.SON retired in 1984,  he has remained active in documenting graffiti for over 15 years.  His recent book Graffiti 365 (Abrams 2011) is an encyclopedic tome documenting both street art and letter based graffiti world-wide.