There are people who are willing to risk their life or health just to put some graffiti in such a place. I mean there are people who would risk their lives for literally nothing at all, and in the graffiti case at least there’s a graffiti.

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Some people find it exciting. Similar to people who go rock climbing without a harness. Adrenaline can make you do some silly things.

It's a whole subculture. Part of the appeal to a lot of people is precisely getting to those spots which look impossible. The people who are really serious about graffiti will totally carry ropes and harnesses and other gear to help them get where they need to be.

It's 40 years old this year, but a lot of stuff in the documentary Style Wars still rings true.

If you put grafiti somewhere which is hard to get to it is less likely for others to destroy the grafiti and therefore it is more likely to stay up for a long time. A lot of the grafiti is done at night when it is harder to get caught and also easier to do invasive things like blocking sidewalks or roads. A lot of the more serious grafiti artists will secure themselves to the best of their efforts with safety harnesses and spotters. They will use properly secured platforms to paint from. If you drive around at night you might confuse them for legitimate maintainance workers.

Less serious grafiti artists might not do all of these safety measures. But they will still bring the tools required for the job and usually a couple of friends. Accidents still happen but not as frequent as you might think.

Jeez I never thought about how serious a graffiti artist could get

I just mindlessly always pictured nothing more than a kid in a Hoodia with a spray can

I think you unterestimates the life threatening situations a kid with a spray might be willing to put themselves in to get the ultimate tag. There is an issue with kids breaking into train yards to tag the rail cars and hurting themselves as the cars gets pushed around or by electrocuting themselves on live wires. But most of the larger grafiti higher up on buildings and infrastructure is made by older people in their late 20s or early 30s.

>secure themselves to the best of their efforts with safety harnesses

Anyone ever take advantage of their safety harness to make it look like they fell off mid-job with a trail of paint down the structure?

That is the kind of thing you only do once. The safety harnesses are designed to be survivable, not comfortable.

I mean, that's also something you only do once without the harness as well

Prestige.

The more difficult a place was to reach, the more "street cred" the artist has. It impresses others in their artistic community. It lends an air of celebrity, it can make one infamous.

Some go to great lengths for this reason. Some plan such things weeks or months in advance. Many risk bodily harm, many risk fines or jail time, just for this prestige.