Graffiti art is a big part of the urban voice. It has become its own art form and developed its own subculture. But there are big risks involved in urban graffiti, and not all of us are willing to take those risks. If you love the look of graffiti art and lettering but don’t want to deface property or risk legal troubles, an online graffiti creator can safely satisfy your artistic impulse. Or if you’re looking for a product that’s uniquely yours, you can use a tutorial to create your own graffiti in Photoshop.

Draw Here

Draw Here lets you tag online while you’re visiting a web page, so you can leave your mark all over your favorite sites. When you create a masterpiece, you can choose to save it and share it with other users. And if you own a website, you can add a Draw Here button to invite visitors to scrawl all over your pages.

Graffiti Creator

Graffiti Creator is one of the most fun online graffiti creators we’ve found. You choose your font, type in a message, and choose from several effects to enhance your graffiti. Customize your colors, and then you’ve got your very own graffiti creation. If you’re up for a challenge, join the current months battle: submit a graffiti piece of the selected word and compete against other artists. While you’re there, be sure to stop by the gallery to check out pictures of real-life graffiti.

Photoshop Graffiti

You can create plenty of awesome things with Photoshop, including realistic-looking graffiti. This tutorial from PS masters Photoshoptalent (part 2 here) will guide you through adding a graffiti tag to an existing photo. As the narrator says, you can brag to your friends that you’re anti-establishment without actually going through the trouble of doing any real graffiti.

This tutorial doesn’t put the graffiti tag into a photo; rather, it just helps you draw a cool tag with the help of some special brushes and simple techniques. Then you’re free to put it onto your website, make a desktop wallpaper out of it, or whatever you like.

This tutorial gives step-by-step instructions to create realistic-looking graffiti that  you can insert into your existing photos. It even includes details such as fading the lettering so that it looks like it’s been on the wall for a while. Once you’re a master graffiti maker, you can draw on pictures of your own house, landmarks and historic sites with no guilt or danger.

Graffiti Playdo

Graffiti Playdo lets you create awesome graffiti with other people who are online at the same time. Much like the chat rooms of yesteryear, several people are in each room. Every person gets a turn to paint, and when you’re done you’ve got a collaborative public art project that you helped create without ever leaving your desk chair.

ZeWall

Playing with ZeWall feels almost like you’re really there. The applet lets you paint on pictures of real backgrounds with a variety of brushes. Paint brick walls, plaster walls, trees, trains, trucks and more without ever worrying about getting caught. The best pieces are compiled into massive virtual frescoes that visitors can peruse.

Graffiti Studio (LRPD Vandalsquad)

This game gives you the thrill of painting in different locations and hiding to avoid getting caught. Create your masterpieces on trains, but be careful of the Vandal Squad, who will come after you from time to time. Hide to avoid them until they’re gone, then carry on with your virtual vandalism. You can choose to download the game or play online.