Sixty Second Ape recently caught up with Dallas graffiti legend Marka27. He was kind enough to give us an update on what he’s been up to and share some pictures of his recent works. Check out what he had to say... SSA: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Marka: I go by Marka27; "Marka" means to write in Spanish or to leave a mark on a surface or brand. I was born in Juarez Mexico and thought it would be good for me to write a name that reps my Mexican roots. I grew up in East Dallas. The wrong side of the tracks East Dallas. The side with crack houses and liquor stores. I came up with some serious writers here. I started writing around 94’. I came up at the time with some homies around the way. We were all teenagers and skated the streets of downtown Dallas and decided to tag a few things while skating. I was inspired by Ras13 the most when it came to style and color. I was inspired the most by Debt when it came to getting up, and of course I was also inspired by Ozone, Mosquito, Trip & Sholz from the early days of Ace parking, Exposition Park's Spray Can Alley, and Deep Ellum's Good Latimer tunnel. In the early 90's Ras13, Chosen One, Vert, Jedi and I all from Dallas teamed up with Teks and Abis from Pleasant Grove after seeing some of their characters and bombs by downtown and the old porn theater by east grand. We then beacame Dallas first real graffiti crew I.C, EYE SEE, or Infinity Crew, but me being in the crew was not infinite and I stopped writing I.C in 97 for personal reasons. I still have love for them cats at least the O.G I.C members. I was the perfect example for racial profiling on the streets back then. I owe many things to graff both good and bad but it eventually caught up to me. I will say the number of times we got away was more then the few time we got busted.... read more...