Tagging and Graffiti - Victoria University of Wellington

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Tagging and Graffiti: attitudes and experiences of New Zealanders Fences, big walls, plain white walls lures them to it (Focus group participant) The train station; that is just hit on top of hit on top of hit (Focus group participant) In the city … alleyways, fences, shops. On my walls (laughter) (Focus group participant) Cars, buses, government property (Focus group participant). Table 7 shows that respondents’ participation in different forms of graffiti varied by gender, age, ethnicity and whether they were involved in graffiti of any form. Although there was variation in the extent of participation, respondents who engaged in some form of graffiti were most likely to identify their activity as ‘graffiti art’. Males reported that they engaged in different types of graffiti at a greater rate than females, although graffiti art was the biggest category selected by those who participated of both genders. Of those who have written graffiti 34.9 per cent reported that they had done ‘graffiti art’; those who had ‘sometimes’ participated also selected this category above the others, as 33.3 per cent chose it. Exceptions to this trend were the youngest age cohort (under 14 years) who were more likely to have tagged (50.0 per cent) or done stylised writing (25.1 per cent) (although the very small numbers in these groups means considerable caution is required), Māori (who were more likely to have tagged, at 41.5 per cent, than have done graffiti art) and Pacific peoples (who were more likely to have done stylised writing). These latter findings reflect the apparent differentials in involvement in tagging and graffiti across ethnic groups that were indicated in Table 5. Table 7: Type of graffiti (number and percentages) Stylised writing Vandalism Graffiti art Tagging Political expression None of these N % N % N % N % N % N % All 25 14.9 8 4.8 73 43.5 49 29.2 13 7.7 20 11.9 Males 19 16.1 6 5.1 46 39.0 37 31.4 10 8.5 14 11.9 Females 6 12.0 2 4.0 27 54.0 12 24.0 3 6.0 6 12.0 Under 14 1 25.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 2 50.0 0 0.0 1 25.0 14-16 5 8.9 2 3.6 27 48.2 21 37.5 1 1.8 4 7.1 17-19 10 16.1 3 4.8 25 40.3 20 32.3 4 6.5 9 14.5 20-21 2 22.2 0 0.0 4 44.4 2 22.2 1 11.1 0 0.0 22-23 1 9.1 2 18.2 5 45.5 1 9.1 2 18.2 1 9.1 24-25 1 14.3 0 0.0 2 28.6 1 14.3 2 28.6 1 14.3 25+ 4 30.8 0 0.0 5 38.5 1 7.7 1 7.7 2 15.4 30+ 1 9.1 1 9.1 4 36.4 1 9.1 2 18.2 2 18.2 40+ 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 100.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 30
Tagging and Graffiti: attitudes and experiences of New Zealanders NZ European 8 15.1 2 3.8 19 35.8 9 17.0 6 11.3 9 17.0 Maori 6 9.2 2 3.1 25 38.5 27 41.5 2 3.1 3 4.6 Pacific 5 35.7 1 7.1 4 28.6 2 14.3 0 0.0 2 14.3 peoples Asian 1 33.3 0 0.0 1 33.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 33.3 European 2 40.0 0 0.0 1 20.0 0 0.0 1 20.0 1 20.0 Other ethnicity 2 5.7 2 5.7 18 51.4 8 22.9 3 8.6 2 5.7 Have written 24 14.5 7 4.2 65 39.4 42 25.5 13 7.9 14 8.5 Have sometimes written 6 15.4 1 2.6 13 33.3 8 20.5 1 2.6 10 25.6 Focus group discussion provided further elaboration on the range of different types and writing that young people identify. Much of the discussion and evaluation of the legitimacy of writing was related to the type and style. Fine gradations existed between, for example, scribbles, tags and bombs, which were forms of relatively unsophisticated writing that require no particular skill and were often associated in group discussions with vandalism. Indeed pieces of writing that were more sophisticated and valued by young people were, they noted, sometimes subject to degradation by having tags written over them: in that way graffiti itself was sometimes vandalised. One focus group participant expressed the distinctions between different forms in the following terms: There is a difference between tagging and bombing. We have that in south Taranaki. A lot of areas where the community youth get together and done a cool bomb on the wall. And yet when it is done like that and the youth are proud of something they have done, they don’t tag it, like we don’t see tagging as much. We get the youth involved in making bombing. It is still a problem but it is not as bad as it used to be. (Focus group participant) As Table 8 indicates, ‘creative expression’ was the most significant reason why respondents wrote graffiti. The second biggest category was ‘none of these’. Only very small proportions reported that they were motivated by a ‘sense of danger’ or the desire to ‘damage something’. Gender differences were marginal in response to this question: females were more likely than males to report that they participated in graffiti as ‘part of a group or 31
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