Did you know that the word ‘graffiti’ is the plural form of ‘graffito’? Well, now you do.

Can I interest you in a graffito? Howzabout if it looks like this?

Chicago (singular) is pretty serious about its graffiti. This is a detail from Gajin Fujita’s chi_town mural, a piece of public art presented as graffiti under the Lake Shore Drive Bridge (at the Grand Underpass near Navy Pier). There are references to the city’s other major sports franchises, too, but naturally my eye went to the Blackhawks portion.

Naturally I dig the hockey content of the work, especially with that iconic Blackhawks logo on her shoulder. Clever of Fujita to obscure the number on that uniform — speaking of which, does anyone have a line on where one can get a low-cut hockey top like that? Yowza!

Last question: what in Sam Hill does the vertical 312 tat on her neck refer to?

I was fortunate enough to visit Chicago for five days this summer. Sadly, I wasn’t able to catch a Blackhawks game at United Center — mainly because it was, well, summer. No matter. We had a good time, and I managed to catch a few hockey-related images that I’ll be sharing over the next few weeks. Enjoy!