Interview With A Tagger

The public rage over tagging that has been simmering in NZ these past few months has not exactly covered the local media in glory, but the DomPost surprised me with this profile of a tagger. It’s complex and revealing, non-judgmental but certainly making no excuses. The subject of the profile is articulate in some quotes, and quite the opposite of others. It’s by turns baffling and revealing.

Kitchener epitomises all that people detest when they see their city or town defaced by vandals. A seasonal fruit picker currently out of work, he’s a young, bored man with no interests and no ambitions that don’t include spraying paint on someone else’s property…
…He says he understands why people would get upset at being tagged, but he just doesn’t care.
“I definitely wouldn’t like it if it was done to me. But if I thought about that I wouldn’t do it, if I thought about people’s feelings. I’ve never cared what people think of me. If I did I would’ve stopped.”

It’s a great piece of compact profile journalism. It could stand to be several times as long, but I suspect that would only reveal more complications in its subject.
Nice one, Marty Sharpe. Nice one, DomPost.

15 thoughts on “Interview With A Tagger”

  1. Interesting article. Has anyone tried putting up a big tagger-friendly board anywhere?

  2. I think there’s one down at the skate park in Waitangi Park? Not sure.
    I have noticed “selective enforcement” of tagging removal in some areas – along Wallace Street, if I’m not confused, there’s an area of concrete where tags are vigorously painted out right alongside one where no action is taken.

  3. And of course it’s brought all the reactionaries out of the woodwork in the comments. I’m amused that it’s being criticized as bad journalism for pretty much the reasons you like it, disturbed by those advocating violence whilst proclaiming themselves to be decent citizens.

  4. I was charmed to see how you called out people on their violent fantasies, and in response were the target of, er, a violent fantasy.
    Note to self: stay out of the comment threads on Stuff. And most places. That way lies madness.

  5. Sounds like the profile of a criminal to me. I’m not religious but if he only took one line out of the bible…treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself…I do wonder how people develop the mentality that it is only about themselves.

  10. I can kind of understand wanting people to know you exist, that this is your place, and you can do this cool thing… not so impressed by tags, but a lot of “bombs” are pretty cool.
    I remember in Wainui the local kids painted all the bus-stops and it seemed to discourage graffiti… and places round Welly with existing murals only seem to get small tags… maybe the answer IS involve taggers in community painting projects and acknowledge and admire their art… it won’t stop everyone, but it might start to subvert their culture?

  12. Nah, comments just take ages to appear there, especially later in the day, after the moderator has gone home I suspect. And I suspect “Joey” is just funning with us in his comment.

  13. um, the bus shelters in Wainui weren’t painted by taggers, they were painted by an “artist” – but it did seem to work…i was there a few weeks ago and some of those shelters have lasted at least 10 years…I used to live in Wainui by an alleyway – it was tagegd constantly before tagging was “cool”. Best strategy was not to paint over but leave it. From that I learnt, nver buy a house by an allleyway:-)

  15. To my knowlegde – the shleters, or at least quite a few of them were painted by this guy whose last name was Sharpe – and his Dad was a PE teacher at Wainui College. He was at the time (that is, the son – who did the shelters) working for the local signwriting firm Symthes. So good intent and good artist, but not really a “tagger” as such.

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