The mysterious disappearance of Rome street artist TUFF

The article investigates the fate of TUFF, a Roman street artist active in the mid-1990s, who vanished without a trace. Known for his small- to medium-sized tags found in the most unexpected places across Rome, TUFF was a prolific bomber who used a map to mark every street he hit, often working from buses. Unlike GECO, his tags were less acrobatic but more discreet, appearing in crevices and hidden corners. Pietro Maiozzi (Bol), a sticker art expert, recalls that the first sticker bomber in Rome was Pino Boresta in the early 1990s, followed by PANE and CANZ. Maiozzi began his own sticker campaign in 2001-2002, recycling 10,000 round stickers from the film '8 Mile' for a job across Rome. TUFF never used stickers, and no records of him defacing monuments exist. The author, who shared urban space with TUFF, appeals for information about his whereabouts, noting that TUFF's gentle tag invited discovery rather than domination. The article also references a forthcoming book 'Non autorizzati' edited by Giorgio de Finis (Castelvecchi, 2021) and includes a profile of Pino Boresta, who lives in Segni (Rome) and creates participatory art inspired by the Situationists.