Tagging

In Prague

I hate tagging!  When I grew up we called it graffiti but at least then it often resembled art.  Not a fan of most graffiti but tagging I find more annoying.  It's basically people writing their names where they don't belong.

Some people look at it as "freedom of expression" or "artistic release".  I call it vandalism.  It drives me mental when I see tagging on a beautiful 18th or 19th century building here in Europe.  Some people must not realise how lucky they are to live in such beautiful places and feel the need to write the equivalent of "stupid was here".

Unfortunately, it's common everywhere but some places have way too much.  I know it is in Brno but personally I think it is way more common in Bratislava.

There's a campaign in Brno called Proč tag(k)? ("Why tag?").  This sticker on a tram window discourages tagging because the window costs 5000 Kč ($230). 

I can understand graffiti as art on something like the Berlin Wall.  But actual images were painted; not someone's initials.  I found the John Lennon Wall in Prague to be just a bunch of tagging but at least it's concentrated in one place and there is a theme.  At the very least be clever about it like they are with the Sofia Soviet Army Memorial.

I believe that Provision 182 of the Czech Criminal Code states that damaging and defacing public property and utilities is punishable up to six years in prison.  I don't know if there is a fine as well.  Too bad it's not like Singapore where the perpetrators would get publicly caned.

Update:  The only tagging here in Brno that doesn't annoy me is the bridge where each summer graduating students spray paint their name and new academic title.