Talk about a super niche industry: graffiti artist Skam runs Homebase , the city’s only full service graffiti merchandise store.

“People in the culture know about us,” said the entrepreneur about the business, which has rarely advertised since it launched in 2010 on the ground floor of a historic dwelling in the Fashion District.

“It’s mainly people interested in graffiti art, but we also supply to the city for some of the city murals, professional muralists, art students, and people in (the) movie industry for back sets.”

Although Homebase carries books, clothing and collectible Japanese toys, its customers come mostly for the high-end European spray paint available in more than 250 colours.

“It is made for artwork,” said the owner who prefers to be known by his one-word tag.

“You can’t buy this spray paint at Home Depot or Canadian Tire or Walmart. They normally carry just the primary colours; we have everything in between and that’s what’s popular — the lime greens, the hot pinks, neons, teal greens and teal blues.

“Street art and graffiti art is getting more popular, so business is picking up. I haven’t been doing worse from year-to-year and I haven’t been flatlining. As long as it gets better and better I’m happy. And I have an unlimited supply of paint for myself.”

Skam’s work has been featured in galleries, and he has collaborated with brands like Louis Vuitton, Google and Rogers.

But the Humber College graphic design grad’s well versed in the ‘bad graffiti’ that prompted city officials to establish a graffiti panel last year to parse the difference between art and vandalism.

Now people employ Skam to get rid of “the junior stuff, the tags done by 13-year-olds.

“People hire me to go over the vandalism, because if they just go over with a blank wall and blank paint, within 24 or 48 hours it’s going to get hit again with bad graffiti.

“If they get someone who is famous and has respect, they get a piece of artwork and the younger kids don’t go and tag over it.

“Once in a blue moon it happens, somebody who is just a jerk, but I’ll clean it up personally, because I don’t want my work defaced by a little kid.”

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