"I do like what you're doing there. It's just all those scribbles that I can't stand." This came from a property owner who was intrigued by me painting his neighbour's wall. I was carefully painting a large piece—he was referring to all the tags around the area.
In a nutshell: tags are quick to do and immediately show your level of expertise as a graffiti artist. This is unfortunately lost on the general public and not yet understood by graffiti-beginners. You have one chance at making the tag. There's no covering up a mistake and starting over like you'd be able to painting a mural. It's that simple.
Above are a few examples of great tags. I'm also linking here a video of Denmark-based artist Bates tagging "Masterpiece" with a very large marker—the size only makes things more difficult. Find here Philadelphia-based artist Enem showing his whole artillery of Philly-style tags.
From top to bottom: KR 2001 NYC (by Krink from New York, caught in Venice); Twisto One and Meta One (by Twist and Meta from California, found on Robots Will Kill); a half-grotesque, half-tall Spoter (by Spoter, caught in Toronto); Shower One (by Shower, caught in Zagreb); Sayce SB (a classic Philly-style tag by artist Sayce, found on 12 Oz Prophet); and Bates, Cyprus 2007 (by artist Bates, while in Cyprus).
