Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I've lived in Melbourne my whole life, and have always been a keen drawer. I used to draw cartoons constantly as a child and was obsessed with watching Bugs Bunny repeatedly. I was also by far the best at drawing Ninja Turtles in 3rd grade haha.

How did you choose your tag, any special meaning?
I never meant to start writing 'Hooker', one day when I was bored, I thought I'd make up a random sticker, I wanted it to be attention grabbing and controversial, so I went with the 'sex sells' theme, and grabbed a porn image to use in the background, slapped HOOKER over the top of it in the style of the Hoover logo (mouth like a Hoover), and stuck them up everywhere. It happened at a time where I was getting tired of my old tag, and after attempting a Hooker sketch, I just liked how the letters worked. Double O's in tags are relatively uncommon and it's easy to replace them with a character instead, I love the letter K and an R at the end is always good.

How did you get in to graffiti?
I never really caught the train when I was growing up, so my first experience with serious graffiti was in the year 2000 thanks to the internet, haha, man that sounds nerdy! A mate at school who was into graff suggested it to me one day, I laughed at the suggestion at first, then he showed me some photos online in our graphics class and I was amazed at the quality of the pieces I saw. I didn't really know anything about graffiti, so I fumbled around as a toy with my $2 paint for longer than most. Just as I was about to give up, thinking I'd never be able to paint a decent piece, I discovered quality spraypaint brands and nozzles, and it was game on!

What is it that you love about graffiti that keeps you writing?
The sketching, preparation, missions and self satisfaction you feel when you pull off a burner. It's all good! Once you've been writing for a while, you see your work get better and better, when I compare the stuff I'm doing now, to 5 years back it's easy to see a huge improvement. It makes me wonder what styles I'll be rocking in another 5 years, I love the fact that there are no boundaries, in the end it's only your lack of imagination or will to improve yourself that will hold you back.

Tell us about your style and how it has developed over
the years.
Starting out my letters were mostly straight and angular, one day I decided that my straight letters looked wak so I started experimenting with adding some flow to my letters. These days I try to push fat & funky styles. I'm trying to fuck with the letters as much as possible while still keeping them legible. I've never been a big fan of adding unnecessary elements to my letters, or technical fills. I've also started doing a lot more characters and incorporating them into my pieces, they give a piece so much more life and makes the finished product a heap more memorable than without.

Who have been your major influences?
Seeing stuff by Melbourne writers like Jors, Frost, Renks, Puzle, Grate, Trance, Keno, Sour, Par, Dorps, Pubes and Naste to name a few, inspired me a lot when I was
starting out.

Now, thanks to the internet, it's really easy to see what's going on all over the world. I try and follow as much of it as I can, bits and pieces of it all inspire me in some way.

Paint brand of choice
Aussie Ironlak!!

Cap of choice
NEW YORK FOR EVERYTHING!

What music motivates you to paint?
Jedi Mind Tricks gets me in the mood to paint, any US hip hop, also any electro with deep beats gets me going. Infected Mushroom's new album makes me paint like a machine! I'm also liking some stuff by French hip hop group IAM at the moment, I can't understand what they're rhyming about, or if they're even rhyming, but it doesn't matter because most of the time hip hop lyrics aren't worth listening to anyway.

Memorable mission moment
One time we were painting a wall next to a freeway, and some nosey dude was so busy trying to get a look at us he smashed into the car in front of him which had stopped..

Any tips you're willing to share to the next generation
of writers?
Stand back from your piece often and just analyse it for a couple of minutes. You'll always find something that looks wak that you didn't notice when you were up close. Don't cap anything that you can't burn, even better, don't cap anything, find a fresh wall.

Anything else to add?
Shout outs to my F1C and SWB bros!!
www.myspace.com/thedirtyhooker
www.hooker1.com