SK Team: How are you?
Chinokoy 420: Fine
SK Team: How’s your graffiti?
Chinokoy 420: No lie low, graffiti is lifetime; that’s my motto.
SK Team: Where were you born?
Chinokoy 420: Tisa, Labangon
SK Team: Have you ever met a girl that became your girlfriend because of doing graffiti?
Chinokoy 420: Yes (grins)
SK Team: Have you been caught by the police?
Chinokoy 420: Yep, in Mabolo with Rotten and in another place with Payter. We finished the piece though even if there was a cop.
SK Team: You also do tattoo right?
Chinokoy 420: Yes
SK Team: What is the difference between tattoo and graffiti? Aside from the manner of execution, of course…
Chinokoy 420: Mas lingaw ang graffiti kay free! (grins) Self-expression bah…I feel horny in tattoo (laughs)
SK Team: What do you want to achieve in your career as a tattoo artist?
Chinokoy 420: I want to be able to work with Paul Booth
SK Team: Now let’s talk about the other side of you, the graffiti side…do you do graffiti for events? You know, like band gigs, etc…
Chinokoy 420: Yes of course…for the free sprays.
SK Team: Who are your influences in graffiti?
Chinokoy 420: Seventh Letter Crew (TSL), Stomp Down Killaz (SDK)
SK Team: How about in music?
Chinokoy 420: D.O.R
SK Team: Do you do throw-ups and tags?
Chinokoy 420: Yep! CR! (smiles) I was the one who de-virginized the building of CAFA in TC…
SK Team: What was the name of your first crew?
Chinokoy 420: Deadendz Crew! With Rotten…we are still hardcore.
SK Team: What can you say about the Cebu street scene?
Chinokoy 420: It’s great, but to be able to paint in the streets is harder now compared to before. It’s much tougher now.
SK Team: What do you want to achieve in the graffiti scene in Cebu?
Chinokoy 420: I want the other artists in Cebu to know what graffiti is and change their perception about graffiti, because most of them relate graffiti to vandalism. I also want them to know that the street art scene in Cebu is very much alive, and that there is a street art scene existing in Cebu.
SK Team: Do you think there is a difference between the graffiti scene here in Cebu compared to the scene in the other parts of the Philippines?
Chinokoy 420: Yes, in every wall we have varieties of style. Even if, let’s say, we write the same letters, we always try to outdo one another, which is not really a bad thing because it creates competition. It elevates the graffiti styles in the Philippines.
SK Team: Do you sketch before you paint it in the streets?
Chinokoy 420: Sometimes
SK Team: What comes first, tattoo or graffiti?
Chinokoy 420: Tattoo, but I sketched a lot of graffiti pieces before.
SK Team: What are you more comfortable doing, tattoo or graffiti?
Chinokoy 420: I am more comfortable doing tattoo, I know the procedures, that’s why (laughs) In graffiti, there are many factors you have to consider, the colors, the wall, the legality of the wall, especially the police…
SK Team: What do you plan to do next? Any shocking piece you’re planning to put in the streets?
Chinokoy 420: It depends…hehe
SK Team: Any parting words? Any “words of wisdom”?
Chinokoy 420: Support local artists!