Roberto Gualtieri began to write his name on the streets of the Upper West Side Manhattan (Harlem and Washington Heights) in late 1969. While painting in the subway system, he introduced the use of a stencil, making him the first writer to innovate this technique of writing your name with rapidity on a wall or a train surface. As a result of this he was considered “all city” by the writing community from 1970-1972, a term that signified his name was everywhere.