Jail-Safe Tagging: Spray Up Buildings in Augmented Reality

Graffiti is one of those art forms that really is only for the brave. It takes a fair amount of courage to risk arrest just to put your mark on the world. For everyone who has always wanted to engage in some heavy tagging without the fear of doing time in jail, the Street Tag app from Channel 4 lets you use your iPhone’s camera to spray paint in augmented reality – no furtive glances or cover of darkness required.

(all images via: Pop-Up City)

The free app turns your iPhone into a virtual spray paint can, letting you tag any building you want in broad daylight. Feel like defacing the Empire State Building with your name? Go for it. Want to leave a big smiley face on the Sears Tower? No worries. The augmented reality abilities hold your artwork in place on an image of the building so that you can spray away to your heart’s content. While the app is full of cool and a lot of fun to use, there is a slight learning curve involved. But once you get the hang of it, you can upload all of your masterpieces to an online gallery – complete with geo-tags – to share them with the world.