NORM Will Rise: From Graffiti to Tattoo Lettering
NORM started graffiti at around 24. Over the following years, lettering connected his work on rooftops and billboards with a career in tattooing, calligraphy and building tattoo machines.
He began writing in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998, after moving to California from Baltimore. Looking back, he said he already felt old to be starting, but his interest in graffiti kept him going. He credited FATE with teaching him about writing and the culture around it, describing their time living together as a kind of graffiti boot camp.
Meeting writers like FATE, REVOK, SABER and RETNA pushed him further into painting. He eventually joined AWR and MSK, two influential West Coast crews. His early focus was on large block letters and prominent locations, where scale and visibility were part of the challenge.
NORM was drawn to difficult locations, especially rooftops and billboards. Part of the appeal was what came with getting there. Painting high above an unfamiliar city gave him access to places and views that most people would never experience.
From walls to skin
His move into tattooing grew out of that interest in letters. Having previously owned a piercing studio, NORM entered a different side of the business and completed his tattooing apprenticeship under Grime and the crew at Skull & Sword in San Francisco. He also learned from Marcus Pacheco and Yutaro. Tattooing gave him a way to keep developing his lettering while building a working life around it.
The connection between the two disciplines was practical as well as visual. Graffiti had taught him about straight lines, clean fades and consistent strokes, while tattooing pushed him further into drawing and understanding letterforms. Yet transferring those skills between surfaces was not always straightforward. He spoke about struggling to paint letters on a wall with the same control he had when drawing them for skin, and about working to bring those approaches closer together.
NORM explained that “Will Rise” came from Angels Will Rise, the name behind his crew AWR. The name carried that connection with him as his work expanded into tattoos, calligraphy and handmade tattoo machines. He built machines both for his own use and for other artists. Letters remained a constant across his practice.
Remembering NORM
NORM died on October 11, 2019, aged 44. Tributes came from both graffiti and tattoo culture, reflecting a career that had connected the two. Marilyn Manson, whom NORM had tattooed several times, remembered him as a friend as well as an artist. His tribute expressed the permanence of the work NORM had left on the people he tattooed:
“Your art will live on in my skin.”
— Marilyn Manson
NORM WILL RISE.
Sources: The Hundreds, Hypebeast, 12ozProphet and Blabbermouth.