# Is grafitti really that bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800 "2001-08-29T20:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/81 "2024-02-09T11:38:56Z")
I appreciate the more artistic mural style urban graffiti art but random tags covering subway trains and storefronts just gives off a shitty urban slum vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/82 "2024-02-09T15:55:25Z")
Nothing show recently, such as the LA high rise, or the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, even come close to being “artistic”, unless one generously considers anything making a statement to be art, such as the artist smearing his feces on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/83 "2024-02-09T16:39:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Lets face it, 99% of grafitti is not some beautiful mural that the artist created in a Ghetto style using spraypaint. Most of it is chicken scratch written by some 15 yr old who wants the world to know that he “rules”. I can piss my name on a wall too. That don’t make it art. Agreed. Maybe in your towns you have real graffiti art. I just have a mess. It is disgusting and then someone else has to go clean it. The ‘best’ graffiti we have here is some murals on a wall and they are objectively ugly and terrible, one misshapen pigeon in a police uniform, an ugly green woman throwing up, and something incomprehensible. The rest is all “tIMmY WuZ HeRe” crap. I would love it if graffiti went away forever it’s just vandalism. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/84 "2024-02-09T16:46:19Z")
> [@digs](#): > > By the way, I’m inventing an app for Apple’s new Vision Pro. It allows older people to read tagging, by morphing the swoopy interconnected letters into Times Roman. Or you could just do it by hand: > **[This Guy Is Painting Over Ugly Graffiti To Make It Legible](https://www.boredpanda.com/painting-over-graffiti-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/)** > > Graffiti can be beautiful or ugly, but when it comes to tagging - most people would agree that it's the most hideous type of street art. And what's even more annoying - it's almost always illegible. > Mathieu Tremblin is a French artist who decided to... ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/85 "2024-02-09T17:02:53Z")
Twice this week in my pre-dawn commutes, I’ve seen graffiti artists touching up their “art” that’d been damaged by recent rains. I don’t really appreciate their work, but that shows some dedication. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/86 "2024-02-09T17:04:13Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@digs](#): > > > > By the way, I’m inventing an app for Apple’s new Vision Pro. It allows older people to read tagging, by morphing the swoopy interconnected letters into Times Roman. > > Or you could just do it by hand: > > [https://www.boredpanda.com/painting-over-graffiti-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/](https://www.boredpanda.com/painting-over-graffiti-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/) FINALLY!! Now I can figure out who “rulez” and whose “turf” I’m on! Really, I’m just sick of having to see a bunch of [avant-garde political statements](https://www.banksy.co.uk/), l[ive in fear of what appears to be a giant wasp or rooster,](https://streetartutopia.com/2023/04/25/20-pics-object-transformations-by-3d-art-master-odeith-collection/) or[injure myself walking into brick wall thinking it’s a real doorway or tunnel entrance like a Looney Toon character.](https://www.awesomeinventions.com/vile-3d-graffiti-street-art/) whenever I walk down the street! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/87 "2024-02-09T17:17:57Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The Tel Aviv metropolitan area has lots of graffiti, but most of it is of the artistic and/or political sort, which I don’t mind that much. We don’t have much tagging at all. Either we don’t have any street gangs, or the one we have are kind of lame. No idea specifically what you’ve seen, but I would be far more tolerant of graffiti if it was say expressing an opinion that is not tolerated by powerful elites. At that point it isn’t even art, it’s rising will. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/88 "2024-02-09T17:39:14Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > No idea specifically what you’ve seen, but I would be far more tolerant of graffiti if it was say expressing an opinion that is not tolerated by powerful elites. At that point it isn’t even art, it’s rising will. Political graffiti is a form of protest, and protest is a vital part of any free society. Society and the government need to know what people are thinking - even if they don’t like what they learn. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/89 "2024-02-09T18:25:45Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@digs](#): > > > > By the way, I’m inventing an app for Apple’s new Vision Pro. It allows older people to read tagging, by morphing the swoopy interconnected letters into Times Roman. > > Or you could just do it by hand: > > [https://www.boredpanda.com/painting-over-graffiti-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/](https://www.boredpanda.com/painting-over-graffiti-street-art-mathieu-tremblin/) Wow, someone actually figured out how to make tagging look _worse_! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/90 "2024-02-10T03:46:14Z")
Tagging is art, bad art. Pure egotism. Frosted\_Glasses’ AP article about the Los Angeles high rise shows better tagging than average, but it’s still ugly, puerile, and egocentric. Fork those guys. > [@Frosted\_Glass](#): > > I am generally against graffiti on private or public property, but my opinion changes when it comes to abandoned buildings. It’s kind of ridiculous that a city would waste resources to clean up a building that has sat unused and unfinished for more than 4 years. It feels like they should reallocate those resources to hold the developers (or their creditors) accountable instead of going after low level vandals. “Two men, ages 35 and 25, were arrested by patrol units, issued citations and released.” That doesn’t sound like a jackbooted crackdown. Nor does it sound particularly burdensome on the taxpayer. Making things is hard. Constructing decent buildings is hard. Not slapping your name on someone else’s property is easy. I do it every day. > [@Alessan](#): > > Either we don’t have any street gangs, or the one we have are kind of lame. I understand that most graffiti in the US is not gang related. Cite: [The cost of graffiti: How police can identify, prosecute taggers](https://www.police1.com/police-products/intelligence-led-policing/articles/how-police-can-investigate-and-prosecute-taggers-tUT7OWXUdcojwzwK/) ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800/91 "2024-02-11T21:21:25Z")
I’m guessing that if I bought a couple of cans of spray paint and placed my “art” over some of these murals that clearly took a lot of time and effort, it would not be appreciated by the original artists very much. Funny, that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-grafitti-really-that-bad/78800.md?page=4)