MFONE

MFONE was the tag of Daniel Montano. He was an American best known for his graffiti who died on June 10, 2017, from a heroin overdose at the age of 31. He had been using Vicodin, Xanax, cocaine, heroin and marijuana for 15 years. He was active in Pittsburgh in the mid and late 2000s. At the peak of his tagging activity, he was considered to be "the most notorious tagger in (Pittsburgh) history."

Personal life His father was an engineer who emigrated from Colombia and his mother was a nurse. During his subsequent 2006 preliminary hearing, Judge John A. Zottola felt that Montano showed a general attitude of disrespect, and sent him to Allegheny County Jail for 5 days before resuming proceedings. At the time, it was described as the "largest graffiti bust in U.S. history," with the damages then-calculated as $560,764.50 In 2007, he was commissioned to produce installation art at the Mattress Factory, a contemporary art museum in Pittsburgh. In spite of objections to his appearance at the museum as the result of his graffiti, the facility supported Daniel Montano, with Michael Olijnyk, the in-house curator, saying "It's hard to see the artistic value in something that you have to have removed...That's a natural conflict. But at the Mattress Factory, we're just about the art. Everyone who comes here comes here because we find their work interesting. If the only stuff he did was on the street, he wouldn't be in the Mattress Factory."

In July 2016, Montano was charged with 40 counts of criminal mischief for newly created graffiti. Using a search warrant, police had found 197 cans of spray paint, books and stickers of graffiti, yellow lined paper with the graffiti tag “Israel” and other evidence at his home. In addition, police stated that they had observed pictures of Montano with new graffiti tags on his Facebook page. However, Montano was acquitted of all charges in May 2017 due to lack of evidence.