# Again with the graffiti **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 21, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560 "2008-09-21T17:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/21 "2008-09-26T04:28:50Z")
'Jesus es mi avion" “Jesus drinks Evian?” “No, Jesus wears Avon.” I’ll say that traditional bathroom scrawls don’t count, depending on the location of the bathroom, but tagging makes me grit my teeth. Punish with mandatory art classes and replacement of the dumbassed crap with something attractive. I’ve seen tagged walls in Austin bloom incredible murals. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/22 "2008-09-26T04:37:37Z")
Quite the opposite, bathroom scrawls rule. I don’t expect stall walls to be pretty, just functional. Plus, I love seeing people respond back and forth, and I love seeing how poorly the spelling is. There’s one at my school that I keep meaning to memorize and post here. The kid must’ve misspelled at least 3 or 4 **very** common words, and totally fucked up the meter in the ‘here I sit all broken hearted’ rhyme. This is a college. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/23 "2008-09-26T04:49:10Z")
I mostly agree with you: I don’t like graffiti. However. There was this really cool graffiti on a wall on the exit off of the Baltimore Beltway in Towson, Maryland. It abutted a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood. The graffiti read, “Viking Women Don’t Care”. Weird and random and none of us growing up had any idea what the hell it meant (we used to say it was a tribute to us fierce scary girls at our fierce scary girls’ school!!!), but it was a landmark. It was so cool. But that’s the only graffiti I have ever liked. It’s gone for good now, as well as the wall I think; more’s the pity! ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/24 "2008-09-26T05:02:47Z")
> [@Creaky](#): > > “Viking Women Don’t Care”. > > Weird and random and none of us growing up had any idea what the hell it meant The funniest graffiti I ever saw in that vein was on the side of an apartment building in Tallinn, Estonia: rap is cool ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/25 "2008-09-26T05:08:04Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > The funniest graffiti I ever saw in that vein was on the side of an apartment building in Tallinn, Estonia: rap is cool Hahahah!! Is that what it said? Like, all it said? Like in all lowercase? And no punctuation? That actually honestly IS funny! 😃 It’s like so low-key. Excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/26 "2008-09-26T05:11:17Z")
> [@Creaky](#): > > Hahahah!! Is that what it said? Like, all it said? Like in all lowercase? And no punctuation? That actually honestly IS funny! 😃 It’s like so low-key. Excellent. That is exactly what it said. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/27 "2008-09-26T06:42:59Z")
My village in Cameroon had exactly one piece of graffiti. It was on the front of someone’s house and read: “Mange moi, Amadou” I never thought the phrase “eat me” would translate so well across such vast distances. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/28 "2008-09-26T08:24:11Z")
I hate tags. However, I like the big murals of art some graffiti artists evolve into creating, they can be quite dazzling and impressive, even if I can’t read what on earth that whacked out lettering is supposedly meant to be saying. I also can appreciate the stencilled art, like [Banksy’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy) stuff in the UK, though not all of it is especially good. ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/29 "2008-09-26T13:09:50Z")
Ugh. I just posted to my blog this morning about a tagger destroying a historical advertisement in Queens. Pisses me off. [Hespos.com](http://www.hespos.com/?p=1318) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/30 "2008-09-26T13:24:14Z")
The stuff on bathroom walls is called “latrinalia” and is usually treated differently from graffitti / tagging in my field. As for the latter, I don’t like it, but I used to be able to deal. But lately ink is not satisfying enough and they have to carve into walls, tables, chairs, mirrors, etc. with knives. That’s a stepped-up, fucked-up level of vandalism. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/31 "2008-09-26T15:19:23Z")
> [@5-HT](#): > > There was one guy here that had a very simple “turtle” tag (a little pic of a turtle with a stylized TURTL next to it). The tag itself was nothing to brag about, but he was absolutely infamous because of a nearly supernatural ability to put it anywhere. You’d walk down the street and look up and see one on the ledge of the top story of an abandoned building that seemed to have no access point. Pretty sure he’s retired now, but it was entertaining for awhile to see what unlikely place he’d manage to tag next. Retired? Or fell off something? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/32 "2008-09-26T16:22:32Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > The stuff on bathroom walls is called “latrinalia” and is usually treated differently from graffitti / tagging in my field. > > As for the latter, I don’t like it, but I used to be able to deal. But lately ink is not satisfying enough and they have to carve into walls, tables, chairs, mirrors, etc. with knives. That’s a stepped-up, fucked-up level of vandalism. Lately? The desks and stall doors were all carved up in my school in the '80s, and it was all old stuff. And out in the sticks; more like farmland than gangland. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/33 "2008-09-26T17:37:38Z")
My favorite recent odd tag is on the side of a beer distributor’s warehouse. It’s in the standard urban tag font, and says: REAGAN! Yes, the exclamation mark is there. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/34 "2008-09-26T19:57:35Z")
> [@5-HT](#): > > There was one guy here that had a very simple “turtle” tag (a little pic of a turtle with a stylized TURTL next to it). The tag itself was nothing to brag about, but he was absolutely infamous because of a nearly supernatural ability to put it anywhere. You’d walk down the street and look up and see one on the ledge of the top story of an abandoned building that seemed to have no access point. Pretty sure he’s retired now, but it was entertaining for awhile to see what unlikely place he’d manage to tag next. He even has a [Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trtl), as does [the DC-area version](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Disco_Dan). ---
**Author:** ![Henrichek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@Henrichek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henrichek)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/35 "2008-09-28T02:22:41Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > The funniest graffiti I ever saw in that vein was on the side of an apartment building in Tallinn, Estonia: rap is cool Maybe I’m being dense here, but what’s the humor in this statement? ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/36 "2008-09-28T03:43:39Z")
On this bridge near my parent’s house there is a fairly new cement bridge that had “I hate potato salad” written in red. The Save A Lot a minute from my home was tagged by someone named “Spark” a week after the building was painted. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/37 "2008-09-29T05:28:11Z")
A couple summers ago, some tagger spraypainted a 4-letter word on my garage. They spelled it wrong. These taggers are not the brightest bulbs in the bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/38 "2008-09-29T21:17:32Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > Maybe I’m being dense here, but what’s the humor in this statement? The humor I saw in his describing that grafitti, was that rap seems to me to be very intense and vibrant. So, writing “rap is cool” in all lowercase and without punctuation (as in maybe an exclamation point at the end of the sentence and great big letters), is funny because the way the sentence was written is exactly how rap is not. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/39 "2008-09-30T03:09:16Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > I agree. People who engage in hyperbole should be electrocuted. Why not the [taggers?](http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1409288) ---
**Author:** ![chicken\_wire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@chicken\_wire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicken_wire)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560/40 "2008-09-30T10:13:43Z")
To my understanding, tagging is the simple, one colour, scrawling of one’s assumed name. You devise a short nom de plume, mess about to find the best way to write it, and then scrawl it everywhere you can. This made up name is now your tag. This is the lowest rung on the graffiti ladder, and every spotty little wanna-be in creation will write their stupid tag on any likely surface. Most tags suck arse, even from the point of view of the larger graffiti community. Tagging like this is not art, in my opinion. Some argue that any form of expression is art, that tagging is a legitimate form of expression, the little man sticking it to the system by forcing it to acknowledge his mark, or some such bullshit. To me, it’s just lame and selfish, make up a name that isn’t yours and write it on someone else’s property = lame. It’s purely a little ego trip for a little mind, with no respect for anyone else, and is only carried out for the consumption of like minded idiots. There’s no message, political or social. Writing “fuck the system” would be more valid, because at least the supposedly oppressive forces could read the fucking thing. The tagging I see is mostly in texta (with highly modified felt pens, filled with home made ink, intended to be as difficult to remove as possible), or to a lesser extent, spray paint. Waxy crayons are becoming more popular now too. The whole thing with tagging is that you only need a single, easily concealed writing implement, you can do it quickly, and disappear. From tagging, the letterform obsession escalates through various levels of sophistication. Larger, single colour efforts (easier and faster), then with two or three colours, finally the rainbow gamut spanning efforts. We’re talking paint now, mostly aerosol cans (intermixed for custom colours in some cases), but anything goes, rollers, mops, you name it. The larger and more sophisticated the effort, the greater the risk, the planning, the possible desirability of collaboration, and the greater the kudos from the vandal’s peers. The speed with which a large piece can be executed is surprising. The fuckers wouldn’t work that fast if you were paying them to paint your house, that’s for sure. As to what they depict, it’s usually just an exercise in letterform, and probably has little meaning outside their narrow community. It doesn’t matter that you or I can’t make heads or tails of it. They often sign their masterpieces with their individual tags, or the name of their crew. Some of this stuff is probably art in it’s own right. It’s still self indulgent wankery though. The problem as I see it is, without the annoying tagging, you won’t get the higher end artsy stuff. It’s a continuum of practice and perfection, played out for the public’s displeasure on our built environment. If I had to choose, I’d say they can all get fucked. The ones will actual artistic talent would find another outlet anyway, and we don’t need the contributions of the rest of the try hard losers. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/again-with-the-graffiti/464560.md?page=3)