What is it about?
Tagging is a category of graffiti writing defined as a stylized signature, monogram, word, or name marked on public and private physical spaces. It is an illegal action yet remains a preoccupation for adolescents worldwide. This article explores the hidden aspects of taggers and their community. We argue that tagging is a ritualistic act giving taggers the freedom to discover aspects of their developing personality that mirror traditional rites of passage rituals.
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Why is it important?
Despite tagging’s worldwide ubiquity within lower socially economic youth cultures, academic research has not addressed a primary purpose specific to tagging in contrast to other forms of graffiti or street art, nor has it delineated the difference of these forms. We articulate a theoretical perspective that addresses that purpose, and differentiates tagging from other forms of graffiti. We support our argument utilizing developmental psychology contending that tagging is a psychological ritual, a rite of passage that provides the tagger with agency, purpose, and psychological resilience.
Perspectives
We hope that this article enables readers to understand tagging versus street art and other forms of graffiti,. We also hope that we have illuminated a new understanding of tagging suggesting its psychological purpose reminiscent of rites of passage activities in traditional cultures
Gregory Hippolyte Brown
Antioch University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Tagging: Deviant behavior or adolescent rites of passage?, Culture & Psychology, August 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1354067x16660852.
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