The only way to ease Whangarei's tagging woes is to give taggers an outlet for their talents, a spraypaint seller believes. Durwin Eagle's shop, Inferno in The Strand, sells lidless spraypaint cans with graffiti writing on front, displayed prominently in a glass cabinet. Mr Eagle has been criticised for selling thepaint but he says he sells to graffiti artists who paint murals and don't deface property. 'This paint is designed specifically for graffiti art. That's not to say they won't be used by taggers but at $18, I'd have thought it would be too expensive for them," he said. "In the three weeks we've been selling the cans people have said there's been an increase in graffiti but I don't think that's true. The problem has been around a lot longer than that." Mr Eagle and assistant Ricki Prime organised a skate, dance and art contest at Whangarei's skate park at the end of last month that included a graffiti art contest. They say there is lots of talent in Whangarei that needs to be channelled in the right direction. "We only push the paint for the art," said Mr Prime, who creates "aerosol art" on canvases he sells online. He is planning another contest for January and wants critics to see the art. "We had lots of parents at the last event who went away knowing more about the scene and appreciating it," he said. "We need to raise the profile of graffiti art and tell people it's not the same as tagging, which is generally gang related and about people marking their territory." If graffiti art was better supported, fewer youths would turn to the streets to express themselves, he said.
