Ames

My name is Ames.
I represent ATC and TBK crew.
I started painting graffiti in 2009 around the Baltimore/D.C area. I am originally from Queens, New York and the old school NY funk has always been a staple in the style I progress.
My biggest influences are definitely NSF and BA crew out of Baltimore (Cedar, Dume, Later, Pear, Arek, Con, Daver, Vandel, Vose, Soviet, Scum, Siek) and MTC out of D.C/Virginia (Fant, Gouge, Snek, Sinus).
I left America in 2013 because I was facing a couple of years in jail for multiple graffiti charges while painting in Baltimore city. I immediately left the country for Tehran, Iran and started TBK (Tehran Bomber Kings) crew with my partner Monzal.
I was only planning on staying in Iran for a few months but ended up stuck in the country for several years because of all the bureaucracy and corrupt travel laws they have with foreigners.
I ended up living in Iran for 4 years.
During the time I was out there and currently, TBK has without a doubt established themselves as the biggest graffiti crew in Iran.
Iran is a country that is very deprived from all the culture the rest of the world shares. Everything from the media to the words out of people’s mouths are censored and controlled in every way. So for a freedom-based subculture like graffiti to emerge the way it did to the extent it did was quite fulfilling and amazing to experience. Graffiti has only been somewhat present in Iran since the mid-late 2000s and the scene is still so new and fresh. While I was out there it was so prime and ready to really go out and bomb.
Graffiti supplies in Iran are close to none and the quality of paint is beyond horrific. Literally everything we did was done with the crappiest stock caps and watered down junk paint. We might have had a total of 20 colors to choose from and half of them were so bad in quality we never even used them. It was stressful but it really created a space to improve our skills.
I was the first American graffiti writer to paint in Iran and quite possibly the last. Graffiti is a total game of Russian roulette within the lines of an Islamic right-winged country like Iran. If you get caught there is absolutely no telling what could happen to you. I’ve heard stories about writers out there disappearing after being caught by police and literally being exiled from the country for the rest of their lives after spending many months in prison.
Graffiti has always been about freedom to me and it is crazy how some places on earth totally regard freedom as a 1st class luxury. For me my mission has always been to express that freedom without any restraint regardless of where I am and the obstacles I have to face within that position.
Now I am based in Los Angeles and mostly painting with my American crew ATC.
Graffiti has always been therapy for me and something I hold very sacred and spiritual. I could care less about fame. The only thing that matters to me is expressing myself and continuously improving my art form.