An internationally-renowned graffiti artist who travelled to Australia to vandalise Melbourne trains and buildings has been jailed for six months.

Jim Clay Harper, 31, also faces six months' at the notorious Rikers Island in New York for outstanding graffiti offences in the US when he is deported after finishing his jail stint here.

Wearing prison greens, Harper appeared in the dock during his appearance at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Harper was arrested by police after a witness tried to stop him and and an unidentified man pasting stickers onto shops in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, on May 4.