Graffiti Art is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is often regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted vandalism.
Graffiti art has existed since ancient times, with examples going back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.
Graffiti Art can be anything from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings.
In modern times, spray paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law.
Sometimes graffiti Art is employed to communicate social and political messages. To some, it is an art form worthy of display in galleries and exhibitions, to others it is merely vandalism. There are many different types and styles of graffiti Art and it is a rapidly evolving artform whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.
Etymology of Graffiti Art:
Graffiti and graffito are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched").
"Graffiti" is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "graffito," which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it.
This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In ancient times, graffiti was carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The Greek infinitive ???fe?? - graphein - meaning "to write," is from the same root.
History of Graffiti Art:
The term graffiti Art referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, etc., found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Usage of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the 1st century B.C. to the 4th century A.D..
The first known example of "modern style" graffiti Art survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). Local guides say it is an advertisement for prostitution. Located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint and a number. This is believed to indicate that a brothel was nearby, with the handprint symbolizing payment.
The ancient Romans carved graffiti Art on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti in Pompeii, including Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love, alphabets, political slogans and famous literary quotes, providing insight into ancient Roman street life. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, a prostitute, apparently of great beauty, whose services were much in demand.
Another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, 'mansueta tene': "Handle with care".
Errors in spelling and grammar in this graffiti offer insight into the degree of literacy in Roman times and provide clues on the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Examples are CIL IV, 7838: Vettium Firmum / aed[ilem] quactiliar[ii] [sic] rog[ant]. Here, "qu" is pronounced "co." The 83 pieces of graffiti found at CIL IV, 4706-85 are evidence of the ability to read and write at levels of society where literacy might not be expected. The graffiti appear on a peristyle which was being remodeled at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius by the architect Crescens.
The graffiti Art was left by both the foreman and his workers. The brothel at CIL VII, 12, 18-20 contains over 120 pieces of graffiti, some of which were the work of the prostitutes and their clients. The gladiatorial academy at CIL IV, 4397 was scrawled with graffiti left by the gladiator Celadus Crescens (Suspirium puellarum Celadus thraex: "Celadus the Thracian makes the girls sigh.")
It was not only the Greeks and Romans that produced graffiti Art: the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala also contains ancient examples. Viking graffiti survive in Rome and at Newgrange Mound in Ireland, and a Varangian scratched his name (Halvdan) in runes on a banister in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.
Graffiti Art, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on the walls of Romanesque churches.
When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned with the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti Art occurring in American history, such as Signature Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s.
Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
There is also evidence of Chinese graffiti on the great wall of China.
Art forms like frescoes and murals involve leaving images and writing on wall surfaces. Like the prehistoric wall paintings created by cave dwellers, they do not comprise graffiti, as the artists generally produce them with the explicit permission (and usually support) of the owner or occupier of the walls.
Modern Graffiti Art:
Graffiti Art is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop culture as one of the four main elements of the culture (along with rapping, DJing, and break dancing).
However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti this century. Graffiti has long appeared on railroad boxcars. The one with the longest history, dating back to the 1920's and continuing into the present day, is Bozo Texino. During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and its filtering into American popular culture.
In the sixties, its popularity was eclipsed by American graffiti proclaiming that "Yossarian lives!", a reference to the protagonist of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary"). A famous graffito of the 20th century was the inscription in the London subway reading "Clapton is God".
Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts are famous for their graffiti Art.
Graffiti Art as an element of hip hop:
In America around the late 1960s, graffiti Art was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures tags of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear.
Around 1970-71, the centre of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, "bomb" a train with their work, and let the subway take it and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough "all city".
Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate Brooklyn style Tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to define the art.
The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash, Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.
The relationship between graffiti Art and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip hop, and its being practiced in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms.
Graffiti Art is recognized as a visual expression of rap music, as breakdancing is the physical expression. By the mid-eighties, the form would move from the street to the art world. Jean-Michel Basquiat would abandon his SAMO tag for art galleries, and even street art's connections to hip hop would loosen.
Modern Graffiti Art on train:
Origins:
Between the years of 1969-1974 the "pioneering era" took place. During this time graffiti Art underwent a change in styles and popularity. Soon after the migration to NYC, the city produced one of the first graffiti artists to gain media attention in New York, TAKI 183.
TAKI 183 was a youth from Washington Heights, Manhattan who worked as a foot messenger. His tag is a mixture of his name Demetrius (Demetraki), TAKI, and his street number, 183rd. Being a foot messenger, he was constantly on the subway and began to put up his tags along his travels.
This spawned a 1971 article in the New York Times titled "'Taki 183' Spawns Pen Pals".
Julio 204 is also credited as an early writer, though not recognized at the time outside of the graffiti subculture. Other notable names from that time are: Stay High 149, PHASE 2, Stitch 1, Joe 182, Junior 161 and Cay 161. Barbara 62 and Eva 62 were also important early graffiti artists in New York, and are the first women to become known for writing graffiti.
Also taking place during this era was the movement from outside on the city streets to the subways.
Graffiti Art also saw its first seeds of competition around this time. The goal of most artists at this point was "getting up": having as many tags and bombs in as many places as possible. Artists began to break into subway yards in order to hit as many trains as they could with a lower risk, often creating larger elaborate pieces of art along the subway car sides. This is when the act of bombing was said to be officially established.
By 1971 tags began to take on their signature calligraphic appearance because, due to the huge number of artists, each graffiti artist needed a way to distinguish themselves. Aside from the growing complexity and creativity, tags also began to grow in size and scale for example, many artists had begun to increase letter size and line thickness, as well as outlining their tags. This gave birth to the so-called 'masterpiece' or 'piece' in 1972.
Super Kool 223 is credited as being the first to do these pieces.
The use of designs such as polka dots, crosshatches, and checkers became increasingly popular.
Spray paint use increased dramatically around this time as artists began to expand their work.
"Top-to-bottoms", works which span the entire height of a subway car, made their first appearance around this time as well. The overall creativity and artistic maturation of this time period did not go unnoticed by the mainstream Hugo Martinez founded the United Graffiti Artists (UGA) in 1972.
UGA consisted of many top graffiti artists of the time, and aimed to present graffiti in an art gallery setting. By 1974, graffiti artists had begun to incorporate the use of scenery and cartoon characters into their work.
Mid 1970s of Graffiti Art:
After the original pioneering efforts, which culminated in 1974, the art form peaked around 1975 - 1977.
By this time, most standards had been set in graffiti Art writing and culture. The heaviest "bombing" in U.S. history took place in this period, partially because of the economic restraints on New York City, which limited its ability to combat this art form with graffiti removal programs or transit maintenance.
Also during this time, "top-to-bottoms" evolved to take up entire subway cars.
Most note-worthy of this era proved to be the forming of the "throw-up", which are more complex than simple "tagging," but not as intricate as a "piece". Not long after their introduction, throw-ups lead to races to see who could do the largest amount of throw-ups in the least amount of time.
Graffiti Art writing was becoming very competitive and artists strove to go "all-city," or to have their names seen in all five boroughs of NYC. Eventually, the standards which had been set in the early 70s began to become stagnant. These changes in attitude lead many artists into the 1980s with a desire to expand and change.
Late 1970s and early 1980s of Graffiti Art:
The late 1970s and early 1980s brought a new wave of creativity to the scene. As the influence of graffiti grew, beyond the Bronx, a graffiti movement begun by encouragement by Friendly Freddie. Fab 5 Freddy (Fred Brathwaite) is another popular graffiti figure of this time, often credited with helping to spread the influence of graffiti and rap music beyond its early foundations in the Bronx. It was also, however, the last wave of true bombing before the Transit Authority made graffiti eradication a priority. The MTA (Metro Transit Authority) began to repair yard fences, and remove graffiti consistently, battling the surge of graffiti artists. With the MTA combating the artists by removing their work it often led many artists to quit in frustration, as their work was constantly being removed. It was also around this time that the established art world started becoming receptive to the graffiti culture for the first time since Hugo Martinez’s Razor Gallery in the early 1970s.
Just as the culture was spreading outside New York and overseas, the cultural aspect of graffiti in New York was said to be deteriorating almost to the point of extinction. The rapid decline in writing was due to several factors. The streets became more dangerous due to the burgeoning crack epidemic, legislation was underway to make penalties for graffiti artists more severe, and restrictions on paint sale and display made racking (stealing) materials difficult. Above all, the MTA greatly increased their anti-graffiti budget. Many favored painting sites became heavily guarded, yards were patrolled, newer and better fences were erected, and buffing of pieces was strong, heavy, and consistent. As a result of subways being harder to paint, more writers went into the streets, which is now, along with commuter trains and box cars, the most prevalent form of writing.
Many graffiti artists, however, chose to see the new problems as a challenge rather than a reason to quit. A downside to these challenges was that the artists became very territorial of good writing spots, and strength and unity in numbers became increasingly important. This was probably the most violent era in graffiti history Artists who chose to go out alone were often beaten and robbed of their supplies. Some of the mentionable graffiti artists from this era were Blade, Dondi, Seen and Skeme. This was stated to be the end for the casual NYC subway graffiti artists, and the years to follow would be populated by only what some consider the most "die hard" artists. People often found that making graffiti around their local areas was an easy way to get caught so they traveled to different areas.
Spread of graffiti culture art:
In 1979, graffiti artist Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were given a gallery opening in Rome by art dealer Claudio Bruni.
Slowly, European art dealers became more interested in the new art form. For many outside of New York, it was the first time ever being exposed to the art form. Fab 5 Freddy's friendship with Debbie Harry influenced Blondie's single "Rapture" (Chrysalis, 1981), the video to which would also offer many their first glimpse of a depiction of elements of graffiti in hip hop culture, as would Charlie Ahearn's independently released fiction film Wild Style (Wild Style, 1982), and the early PBS documentary Style Wars (1983).
Hit songs like "The Message" and "Planet Rock" contributed to a growing interest outside New York in all aspects of hip hop. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983.
Hollywood also paid attention, consulting writers like PHASE 2 as it depicted the culture and gave it international exposure in movies like Beat Street (Orion, 1983).
New York 1985-1989 of Graffiti Art:
The years between 1985 and 1989 became known as the "die hard" era.
A last shot for the graffiti artists of this time was in the form of subway cars destined for the scrap yard. With the increased security, the culture had taken a step back. The previous elaborate "burners" on the outside of cars were now marred with simplistic marker tags which often soaked through the paint.
By mid-1986 the MTA and the CTA were winning their "war on graffiti Art," and the population of active graffiti artists diminished.
As the population of artists lowered so did the violence associated with graffiti Art crews and "bombing." Roof tops also were being the new billboards for some 80's writers.
New York Clean Train Movement era of Graffiti Art:
The current era in graffiti Art is characterized by a majority of graffiti artists moving from subway or train cars to "street galleries." The Clean Train Movement started in May, 1989, when New York attempted to remove all of the subway cars found with graffiti on them out of the transit system. Because of this, many graffiti artists had to resort to new ways to express themselves.
Much controversy arose among the streets debating whether graffiti should be considered an actual form of art.
During this period many graffiti artists had taken to displaying their works in galleries and owning their own studios. This practice started in the early 1980s with artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who started out tagging locations with his signature SAMO, and Keith Haring, who was also able to take his art into studio spaces.
In some cases, graffiti artists had achieved such elaborate graffiti (especially those done in memory of a deceased person) on storefront gates that shopkeepers have hesitated to cover them up.
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture of Graffiti Art:
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti Art has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux."
However due to illegalities some of the "street artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism, and IBM was fined more than $120,000 for punitive and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami in order to market its handheld PSP gaming system.
In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle or a rocking horse."
Along with the commercial growth has come the rise of video games also depicting graffiti, usually in a positive aspect for example, the Jet Set Radio series (2000-2003) tells the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists' freedom of speech.
Global developments of Graffiti Art:
South America Graffiti Art:
There is a significant graffiti Art tradition in South America most especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, Sao Paulo is generally considered to be the current centre of inspiration for many graffiti artists worldwide.
Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich graffiti scene...[earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration."
Graffiti Art "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities."
Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of Sao Paulo today and 1970s New York."
Middle East Graffiti Art:
Graffiti in the Middle East is slowly emerging, with pockets of taggers operating in the various 'Emirates' of the United Arab Emirates, in Israel, and in Iran.
Modern experimentation of Graffiti Art:
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies.
For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes as new media for graffiti writers, although this is arguably not considered real graffiti.
The Italian artist Kaso is pursuing regenerative graffiti through experimentation with abstract shapes and deliberate modification of previous graffiti artworks.
Characteristics of common Graffiti Art:
Some of the most common styles of graffiti Art have their own names.
A "tag" is the most basic writing of an artist's name in either spray paint or marker. A graffiti writer's tag is his or her personalized signature. "Tagging" is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to vandalism, as they use it to label all acts of graffiti writing (it is by far the most common form of graffiti). Tags can contain subtle and sometimes cryptic messages, and might incorporate the artist's initials or other letters. As well as the graffiti name, some artists include the year that they completed that tag next to the name, so that Tox, an artist from London, becomes Tox03, Tox04, etc. John Tsombikos claimed subsequent to his arrest that his "Borf" tag campaign, which gained recognition for its prevalence in Washington, D.C., was in memory of a deceased friend.
Another form is the "throw-up," also known as a "fill-in," which is normally painted very quickly with two or three colors, sacrificing aesthetics for speed. Throw-ups can also be outlined on a surface with one color. A "piece" is a more elaborate representation of the artist's name, incorporating more stylized "block" or "bubble" letters, using three or more colors. This of course is done at the expense of timeliness and increases the likelihood of the artist getting caught. A "blockbuster" is a large piece done simply to cover a large area solidly with two contrasting colours, sometimes with the whole purpose of blocking other "writers" from painting on the same wall.
A more complex style is "wildstyle", a form of graffiti involving interlocking letters, arrows, and connecting points. These pieces are often harder to read by non-graffiti artists as the letters merge into one another in an often undecipherable manner. A "roller" is a "fill-in" that intentionally takes up an entire wall, sometimes with the whole purpose of blocking other "writers" from painting on the same wall. Some artists also use stickers as a quick way to "get-up". While critics from within graffiti culture consider this lazy and a form of cheating, stickers can be quite detailed in their own right, and are often used in conjunction with other materials. Sticker tags are commonly done on blank postage stickers, or indeed anything with an adhesive side to it.
Stencils are made by drawing an image onto a piece of cardboard or tougher versions of paper, then cut with a razor blade. What is left is then just simply sprayed-over, and if done correctly, a perfect image is left. Many graffiti artists believe that doing blockbusters or even complex wildstyles involves too great an investment of time to justify the practice. Doing wildstyle can take (depending on experience and size) three hours to several days. Another graffiti artist can go over that piece in a matter of minutes with a bubble fill-in. This was exemplified by the writer "CAP" in the documentary Style Wars, who, other writers complain, ruins pieces with his quick throw ups. This became known as "capping" and is often done when there is "beef", conflict between writers.
Uses of Graffiti Art:
Theories on the use of graffiti Art by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism in 1961.
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal.
The murals of Belfast and of Los Angeles offer another example of official recognition.
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and/or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by Graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with Graffiti also are concerned with the similar activity of Stencilling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint.
Radical and political of Graffiti Art:
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names as 'De Zoot', 'Vendex' and 'Dr Rat'. To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980's there already was a vibrant graffiti culture.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint.
Since the 1990's a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints for a variety of reasons -- but primarily because is it difficult for the police to apprehend and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a protest that is as fleeting and less intrusive than marching in the streets. In some communities, such impermanent works survive longer than works created with permanent paints because the community views the work in the same vein as that of the civil protestor who marches in the street -- such protest are impermanent but effective nevertheless.
In some areas where a number of artist share the impermance ideal, there grows an informal competition. That is, the length of time that a work escapes destruction is related to the amount of respect the work garners in the community. A crude work that deserves little respect would invariably be removed immediately. The most talented artist might have works last for days.
Artists whose primary object is to assert contol over property -- and not primarily to create of an expressive work of art, political or otherwise -- resist switching to impermanent paints.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences forced onto them as a means of further protest.
The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each others' practices. Anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers, for example, did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
On top of the political aspect of graffiti as a movement, political groups and individuals may also use graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to its illegality, has generally become favoured by groups excluded from the political mainstream (e.g. far-left or far-right groups) who justify their activity by pointing out that they do not have the money or sometimes the desire to buy advertising to get their message across, and that a "ruling class" or "establishment" control the mainstream press, systematically excluding the radical/alternative point of view. This type of graffiti can seem crude; for example fascist supporters often scrawl swastikas and other Nazi images.
One innovative form of graffiti that emerged in the UK in the 1970s was devised by the Money Liberation Front (MLF), essentially a loose affiliation of underground press writers such as the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams and magazine editor and playwright Jay Jeff Jones. They initiated the use of paper currency as a medium for counterculture propaganda, overprinting banknotes, usually with a John Bull printing set. Although short lived the MLF was representative of London’s Ladbroke Grove centered alternative and literary community of the period. The area was also a scene of considerable anti-establishment and humorous street graffiti much of it also produced by Williams.
Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland produce political graffiti. As well as slogans, Northern Irish political graffiti include large wall paintings, referred to as murals. Along with the flying of flags and the painting of kerb stones, the murals serve a territorial purpose. Artists paint them mostly on house gables or on the Peace Lines, high walls that separate different communities. The murals often develop over an extended period and tend to stylisation, with a strong symbolic or iconographic content. Loyalist murals often refer to historical events dating from the war between James II and William III in the late 17th century, whereas Republican murals usually refer to the more recent troubles.
Gang relations with Graffiti Art:
Groups that live in industrial or poor areas may use graffiti Art for various purposes, especially if many groups populate one specific area or city. The main use is to mark either territory or "turf" by tagging a space such as a wall on building near or on the boundaries of a gang's turf to inform other gangs of their presence.
Usually, this type of tag will have the name of the gang. They are also used to communicate with other gangs, usually to warn them of a coming assassination of a certain member, by either writing the member's street name and crossing it out, or by finding tags by the member and crossing them out.
If a gang overwrites another gang's tag, it is also the symbol of a takeover of a gang's turf or a sign of aggression toward the gang. While most cities now take measures to prevent this, such as washing or erasing tags, it was much more common in the mid 1980s when crime waves ran high.
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