Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon: Keith Haring, Queue Jumpers and the Print That Marked the End of an Era

Posted by Rosh Boroumand on 30th June, 2026
Filed under: From the Street

Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon is one of the artist’s most layered late print images, bringing together a hooded figure, a chained Keith Haring-style barking dog and one of the most memorable release stories in Banksy print history. First appearing as a street work in South London in 2010 before being published as a screen print by Pictures on Walls, Choose Your Weapon stands at the intersection of street culture, art history, youth identity and the growing pressure around access to Banksy’s editions.

Banksy Choose Your Weapon Silver VIP edition from edition of 25

GraffitiStreet Co-Founder & Banksy Specialist Rosh Boroumand hanging Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Silver) VIP Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet.

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Table Of Contents

What Is Banksy's Choose Your Weapon?
The Meaning Behind Choose Your Weapon
Banksy and Keith Haring’s Barking Dog
From South London Wall to Pictures on Walls Print
The Release That Entered Banksy Print History
Choose Your Weapon Editions and Colourways
GraffitiStreet Perspective
Banksy Choose Your Weapon Market Context
Frequently Asked Questions about Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon
Discover Banksy at GraffitiStreet

What Is Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon?

Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon depicts a silhouetted, hooded figure holding a heavy chain attached to a barking dog. The human figure is rendered in Banksy’s familiar stencil language: guarded, anonymous and urban. The dog, however, belongs to a different visual world. It is drawn in the unmistakable graphic language of Keith Haring’s barking dog, one of the most recognisable motifs of late twentieth-century street and pop culture.

This tension is what gives the work its force. The figure appears casual and defensive, while the dog is all movement, alarm and symbolic energy. The chain between them becomes a line of control, but also a line of meaning. Banksy places two very different street languages in the same image and asks the viewer to consider what kind of power an image can carry once it enters public space.

The title, Choose Your Weapon, sharpens that question. The weapon may seem to be the dog, yet Banksy’s image points towards something less literal. The weapon may be fear, reputation, cultural identity, public perception or visual language itself. Like many of Banksy’s strongest works, the image appears direct at first glance, then becomes more complex the longer it is held in view.

Banksy, Choose Your Weapon, London. Image copyright Banksy

The Meaning Behind Choose Your Weapon

Choose Your Weapon can be read as an image about aggression, identity and the ways young people are seen within the city. The hooded figure evokes a familiar media shorthand for suspicion and social tension, particularly in Britain during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Banksy uses that silhouette knowingly, leaning into a stereotype in order to question the fear and judgement placed upon it.

The dog complicates the scene. It could be understood as a threat, a companion, a projection of anger or a borrowed symbol of cultural force. Held on a chain, the Haring-style dog becomes both controlled and weaponised. It is lively, graphic and almost playful in form, yet its role within the composition is charged with tension.

This is where the work carries resilient strength. Choose Your Weapon does not simply present violence or menace. It asks what people reach for when they feel watched, judged or pushed to the edge of public life. Banksy’s answer is deliberately unstable. The weapon might be intimidation, but it might also be art, style, humour, visibility or the ability to turn a symbol back on those who think they already understand it.

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Lemon Yellow) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

Banksy and Keith Haring’s Barking Dog

The Keith Haring reference is central to the meaning of Choose Your Weapon. Haring’s barking dog emerged from the urgent graphic language of 1980s New York, where his simplified figures, radiant babies, crawling bodies and animated animals turned public space into a site of communication. The dog could suggest warning, authority, alarm, obedience or social energy, depending on its context.

Banksy takes that visual language and places it into a different atmosphere. The dog is no longer running freely across Haring’s field of signs. It is chained to a hooded figure, held close, and made to perform as a symbol of threat. That shift gives Choose Your Weapon its tension. The barking dog is playful in form, yet menacing in function. It carries Haring’s optimism and urgency into Banksy’s more guarded landscape of surveillance, suspicion and urban anxiety.

The result is not a simple homage. It is a conversation between two generations of street language. Haring used public space to communicate with speed, clarity and joy, while Banksy often uses public space to expose contradiction, authority and social unease. In Choose Your Weapon, those two energies meet. Banksy borrows one of Haring’s most recognisable symbols and asks what happens when visual language itself becomes a weapon.

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Khaki)) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet.

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From South London Wall to Pictures on Walls Print

Choose Your Weapon first appeared as a street work in Bermondsey, South London, in 2010, on the wall of The Grange pub. Its appearance immediately connected the image to the city’s social landscape: the street, the pub wall, the hooded figure, the dog, the chain and the public gaze.

The image was later published as a screenprint by Pictures on Walls, the print house closely associated with Banksy’s editioned works. The transition from wall to print gave Choose Your Weapon a new life within the collector market, while retaining the immediacy of the original street image.

This dual identity matters. As a wall work, Choose Your Weapon spoke directly to the city and its anxieties. As a print, it entered homes, collections, auctions and galleries, where its meanings continued to shift. The image became both an artwork and a record of a moment when Banksy’s public audience and collector audience were beginning to collide with new intensity.

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Turquoise) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

The Release That Entered Banksy Print History

Choose Your Weapon holds a particular place in Banksy’s print history because of the way it was released. Published by Pictures on Walls in 2010, the work appeared across multiple colourways, with public releases, online lottery allocations and special VIP editions contributing to the complexity of the series.

The release itself has become part of Banksy lore. Demand was intense, and the queues around Pictures on Walls became chaotic. Some collectors who had waited to buy the print missed out because others jumped the queue. In response, Banksy and Pictures on Walls produced a special warm grey edition of 58 impressions for those who had queued but lost their place because of queue jumpers.

This edition is formally known as Choose Your Weapon, Queue Jumping Grey, though collectors sometimes refer to it as the Queue Jumper or Crowd Jumper edition. Its story captures a turning point in Banksy print collecting. Public access, street-level enthusiasm and accelerating market demand collided in real time, and Banksy folded that disorder back into the mythology of the work.

For that reason, Choose Your Weapon is widely regarded as one of the last Banksy print releases made directly available through the old Pictures on Walls public-release model. The chaotic release did not simply create frustration. It marked the end of an era, when Banksy’s editions could no longer move through the same informal channels without being overwhelmed by the scale of demand.

Banksy Choose Your Weapon Queue Jumping Grey print with Keith Haring barking dog

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Queue Jumper Grey) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

Choose Your Weapon Editions and Colourways

The Choose Your Weapon print series is one of Banksy’s most complex colourway releases. There is a main Grey edition of 100 prints, alongside eight colourways released through Pictures on Walls: Bright Pink, Bright Purple, Dark Orange, Khaki, Light Orange, Slate, Soft Yellow and Turquoise.

Further colourways were released through Marks & Stencils, including Lemon, Olive and Magenta, while an online lottery included Red, Sky Blue and Green. Special VIP editions in Gold, Silver and White were not released to the general public, with Gold and Silver produced in editions of 25. Sotheby’s and Christie’s both identify the Gold and Silver VIP editions as particularly rare examples within the series.

Banksy Choose Your Weapon colourways across the 2010 Pictures on Walls release

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Magenta) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

The artist’s proof structure adds another layer of depth. Phillips records Choose Your Weapon (Dark Purple) as one of 58 artist’s proofs in varying colourways, published by Pictures on Walls and accompanied by a Pest Control certificate. Rare hand-finished impressions are also known within the market, adding further scarcity and collector interest to the wider series.

For collectors, each colourway has its own character. Some heighten the starkness of the image, while others shift its temperature completely. The composition remains the same, yet colour changes the emotional register of the work. This is part of why Choose Your Weapon has remained such an active subject in Banksy’s print market. It offers recognisability, art-historical depth and variation within a single image.

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Dark Purple) A/P Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet

GraffitiStreet Perspective

As GraffitiStreet founders, we have handled many different Choose Your Weapon colourways, and each has its own merit. The variety in colours is part of what makes the series so compelling.

What makes Choose Your Weapon especially important is the way Banksy brings Keith Haring’s barking dog into his own world. The dog is familiar, graphic and full of movement, yet Banksy places it on a chain beside a hooded figure. The result is a work that feels direct at first glance, then becomes more layered the longer one looks. It is about aggression, identity, public perception and the power of visual language.

The work’s lasting strength lies in this ambiguity. Banksy does not offer a neat moral reading. Instead, he places Haring’s visual energy inside a charged urban scene and leaves the viewer to consider who holds power, who is being watched, and what kind of weapon an image can become.

GraffitiStreet Present ON OFF THE WALL – A Collector’s Guide – Installation Shot. CYW Khaki Copyright GraffitiStreet.

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GraffitiStreet currently has all artworks available to view online, or at the gallery in Chichester, giving visitors the opportunity to experience the work in person.

Banksy Choose Your Weapon Market Context

Within Banksy’s print market, Choose Your Weapon occupies a distinctive position because of its image, its edition complexity and its release history. It is immediately recognisable, rich in art-historical reference and deeply tied to the changing conditions around Banksy collecting in 2010.

“Collectors are drawn to Choose Your Weapon because it sits at the intersection of Banksy’s street practice, print history and art-historical dialogue with Keith Haring,” says GraffitiStreet Co-Founder and Banksy specialist Rosh Boroumand. “The colourway structure gives the series real depth, from the main Grey edition to the smaller public editions, VIP Gold and Silver examples, Queue Jumping Grey and the artist’s proofs. For serious collectors, condition, Pest Control certification, colourway rarity and release history all matter, because each version tells a slightly different part of the same story.”

The market has reflected that complexity. Phillips sold Choose Your Weapon (Dark Purple), an artist’s proof from the group of 58 APs in varying colourways, for £151,200 in January 2022. Sotheby’s records a Gold VIP example from an edition of 25 selling for £239,400 in March 2022, while Sotheby’s and Christie’s both note that the Silver VIP edition, also from an edition of 25, has held a significant place in the auction history of the subject.

These results belong to the wider Covid-era and immediate post-Covid Banksy market, when demand for rare editions, artist’s proofs and culturally recognisable images intensified sharply. Today, the Banksy print market is more mature and more disciplined. Collectors are paying closer attention to condition, provenance, Pest Control certification, colourway rarity and whether a particular impression carries a story that gives it lasting depth.

In that context, Choose Your Weapon remains a significant Banksy print because its importance does not rest only on auction highs. Its strength comes from its layered image, its Keith Haring reference, its complex release history and its place at the end of an era in Banksy print distribution. The strongest examples continue to appeal because they carry both visual force and historical context.

Banksy – Choose Your Weapon (CYW) (Gold) Print. Image copyright GraffitiStreet.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon

What is Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon?

Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon is a 2010 artwork and screenprint showing a hooded figure holding a chain attached to a barking dog drawn in the visual language of Keith Haring. It first appeared as a street work in South London before being released as a print by Pictures on Walls.

What does Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon mean?

Choose Your Weapon can be read as an image about aggression, identity, public perception and the power of visual language. The title suggests that the weapon may be the dog, but also the image, the symbol, the voice or the way a person chooses to move through the world.

Is the dog in Choose Your Weapon a Keith Haring dog?

Yes. The dog in Choose Your Weapon is a direct visual reference to Keith Haring’s famous barking dog motif. Banksy places the Haring-style dog on a chain beside a hooded figure, creating a charged conversation between two generations of street art language.

When was Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon released as a print?

Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon was released as a screenprint in 2010 by Pictures on Walls. The series was issued across multiple colour ways, with public releases, online lottery allocations, VIP editions and artist’s proofs.

What is Choose Your Weapon Queue Jumping Grey?

Choose Your Weapon, Queue Jumping Grey is a special warm grey edition of 58 impressions. It was produced for people who had queued to buy Choose Your Weapon in 2010 but missed out because others jumped the queue.

Why is Choose Your Weapon important in Banksy print history?

Choose Your Weapon is important because it is widely regarded as one of the final Banksy print releases made available through the old Pictures on Walls public-release model. The chaotic queue-jumping episode and the later Queue Jumping Grey edition have become part of the mythology of the print.

What are the rarest Choose Your Weapon colour ways?

The VIP Gold and Silver editions, each produced in editions of 25, are among the rarest recognised colourways. Queue Jumping Grey, from an edition of 58, and the artist’s proofs in varying colourways are also highly sought after by collectors.

What should collectors consider when buying Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon?

Collectors should buy Choose Your Weapon with a Pest Control certification, condition, provenance, colour way rarity, edition type, framing quality and release history.

Does GraffitiStreet have access to any hand-finished Banksy Choose Your Weapon works?

Yes. GraffitiStreet Gallery has access to rare and hand-finished examples of Banksy’s Choose Your Weapon. For availability, provenance details and private acquisition advice, please contact Rosh Boroumand, co-founder of GraffitiStreet and Banksy specialist.

Sources & Further Reading

Pest Control Office
Banksy Official Website
Sotheby’s Auction
Phillips Auction
Christie’s Auction
Pictures on Walls POW

Discover Banksy at GraffitiStreet

For more than 13 years, GraffitiStreet has helped collectors discover, acquire, and better understand significant contemporary artworks, with a particular focus on Banksy and the evolving street art market.

Through our gallery, editorial platform, and collector resources, we provide guidance on authentication, provenance, condition, rarity, and market context, helping collectors make informed decisions with confidence.

If you are considering acquiring a Banksy and would like guidance on authentication, provenance, condition, market context, or exceptionally rare editions such as hand-finished examples, we invite you to contact our co-Founder and Banksy specialist, Rosh Boroumand, for a confidential conversation.

GraffitiStreet Gallery
25A West Street
Chichester
West Sussex
England PO19 1QW

For Banksy availability, acquisitions, and private viewings, explore the collection online, contact us directly, or visit our gallery in the heart of Chichester, England.