The tag is fundamental to the practice of graffiti and street art. It is the artist’s moniker, their nickname, their pseudonym. It is the face they present to their peers, the handle they use to hide behind from the authorities. To the public, a tag is an eyesore: after all, it is the most common act of vandalism, one akin to territorial pissing. Yet at its purest and most artistic, the tag is an urban form of calligraphy, a modern day script which captures the style, elegance and ruggedness of the streets upon which they are scrawled.
Long before they graced the galleries and became the darlings of the art scene, both graffiti and street art originated as acts of vandalism. In order for the enactor of such a crime to maintain their anonymity – while garnering notoriety – they commonly adopted new identities. These assumed names were and still are colloquially known as tags, since they are used to tag the presence of the graffiti artist within a certain area, functioning as a territorial marker.
A tag is usually very short in length since it has to be written at great speed. The more a graffiti artist practises, the quicker they become at tagging. Tags can appear as puns or plays on words, such as Twenty Eleven taking his name from the saying ‘twenty four seven’, and then adding the four and seven together. Other tags reflect the nature of the artist’s work: Troll draws trolls and goblins rampaging the streets, Creepy’s work is just that, while lesbian street artist Bambi features the cute loveable cartoon character heavily in her stencils.
At other times tags appear as misspelt variations of normal words. Why? Since a tag should be visibly appealing, sometimes a misspelt word can have more allure or edge than its correct counterpart. Plus, such misspelling can give an artist more street credit by instantly showing to others how far they are willing to go.
After all, once a street artist has a tag, it then becomes the object which proves their merit and worth: it is the basis of their full scale pieces, while others prove their gall by placing their tag in incredibly risky or precarious places. The true graffiti artist elevates their tag above turf wars and honours the true art inherent in writing and typography.
Take, for example, international graffiti artist SheOne. His style has reached such a level that when he writes his tag, it bares no semblance to the word ‘SheOne’ but rather the harmonious, expressive and skilful attributes inherent in calligraphy. His work has such finesse, such awe-inspiring abstraction, that he is not only being touted as the next Banksy, but his work already fetches upwards of five figures in a gallery space, with Eric Clapton reported to be one of the biggest collectors of SheOne.
Unfortunately, many tag blatantly to incite hate for what is otherwise an incredibly skilful artform. However, just as it is easy to recognise beautiful handwriting, so it should be as easy to recognise a beautiful tag. Mind you, that can be hard if the tag is defacing a new $20 000 wall a homeowner has just installed. But if it elegantly swirls and arcs across a lifeless, neglected, grey space, perhaps it becomes easier in seeing how such a form of expression can actually beautify our streets.
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Disclaimer: OUTinPerth does not condone or recommend illegal tagging. Tagging without permission of the owner of the property incurs substantial penalties under WA law.
