From Novelty To Icon
The 253 Heart is one of Tacoma's most enduring symbols.
It began in 2007 as a doodle. Daniel Blue, Tacoma artist and frontman of the band Motopony, was practicing a continuous-line drawing exercise, and when he turned his attempt at the area code 253 sideways, he saw a heart.
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Vinyl stickers carried it across the city, and it became a source of pride that reclaimed the area code itself after the 1997 split from Seattle's 206.
Blue later passed the heart to his friend and manager, Steve Naccarato, who carried it onto clothing, jewelry, guerrilla art, hats, and glass art, and used it to raise funds for local causes.
It was a temporary landmark, a 30-foot glowing sign near Titlow Beach to the tattoos and bumper stickers of residents who wear it as a badge of thge town they love.