History Main / GenericGraffiti

Since the 1970s, UsefulNotes/{{graffiti}} have become an increasingly common occurrence in urban areas, and you probably won't find a back alley or an underpass that doesn't have a handful of tags sprayed on, unless it's been recently buffed. Therefore, when works of fiction deal with modern urban settings, graffiti cannot be exactly ignored. In live-action movies and TV series, one can just film the real things, but with comics, animation and video games, the artists must stretch their own imagination. One solution, which [[LawOfConservationOfDetail doesn't involve creating more detail than necessary]], is to make the graffiti too illegible to mean anything at all, just random marks that may or may not look like they were intended as writing.

* ''Hood of Horror'' features a magical spray-paint can. If one uses it to "slash" other's tags, they'll die.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Lipstick}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lipstick.jpg]]

* After Soviet victory in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Reichstag in Berlin was covered in [[https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/reichstag-covered-graffiti-1945/ Soviet soldier's graffiti, still readable to this day]]. Most of them are just “From [Russian City] to Berlin” with a name or “Kilroyski was here” (or just this last one, or the occasional "Hitler kaputt".

* The graffiti in [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]] are [[TakeOurWordForIt apparently]] also heavy on profanity. Then there's also Troll Graffiti, which are scratched into walls. [[ArcWords Mr Shine. Him Diamond]]. Trolls being living rocks, their equivalent of gang tattoos looks a lot like graffiti.
** Dealing with graffiti is one of many things Adora Belle Dearheart has to do in her capacity as Golem Trust secretary. In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' when she asks Moist what it says over the door, he replies that it says "Smash the barstuds."

-->-- '''Graffiti sprayed on a wall in an episode of WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''

* [[BigApplesauce In case we forget where she came from]], Revy from ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' mention how the painting in the "Das Wieder Erstehen Des Adlers" arc isn't any better-looking than New York subway graffiti. There's also a scene with BathroomStallGraffiti, including rather generic scribbling.

* The Swedish strip ''ComicBook/{{Rocky}}'' has a RunningGag where the word "Penis" is spray painted everywhere.

* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'', alongside realistic and real graffiti (including a Banksy piece, which is an anachronism, as someone painted over it some time after the movie's release), there is a lot of Arc Graffiti, such as "Last one alive please turn out the light"

* In the very first scene of ''Series/CitizenSmith'' Wolfie is singing while painting political graffiti on an estate block. "PLAN AHEA-" He ran out of room and then he comments that the structure of the building is wrong.

* The ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' games feature graffiti in many of the city zones. Some of it is generic while others bits are related to specific gangs and only show up in the areas that they occupy.

* One plot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' revolved around someone who was tagging the school and other buildings with the name "Binky". The character Binky claimed it wasn't him, and the gang spends the rest of the episode trying to clear his name. [[spoiler: Turns out it was done as promotional material for a upcoming band.]]

* While 2000 years may separate ourselves and the people of Pompeii, a [[http://io9.com/5856858/a-weird-chart-comparing-lewd-graffiti-in-ancient-pompeii-and-1960s-los-angeles study comparing graffiti]] found the excavated BathroomStallGraffiti and the graffiti from contemporary 1960's (at the the time of the study) graffiti shows rather remarkable similarity. [[SincerityMode Well, good to know people were always like that.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' lets ''players'' draw graffiti that will appear around Inkopolis and in the games' multiplayer stages. The original ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' allowed players to post drawings to Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s own social media website, Website/{{Miiverse}}, that would appear as graffiti throughout the game[[note]]Since the Miiverse service was discontinued in late 2017, this function is no longer available[[/note]], while ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' has a similar function that makes use of Facebook or Twitter.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' takes drawings from Miiverse posts and displays them in the game's multiplayer levels as graffiti.

* The '70s New York-themed queue line for the former ''Ride/{{Kongfrontation}}'' ride at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]] naturally contained a lot of graffiti. At times, there were small events held where guests were allowed to add their own graffiti to the walls.

* British artist Norm Breyfogle (best known for his work on Batman in the late [[TheEighties '80s[[ and early [[TheNineties '90s]]) almost ''always'' draws an Anarchy "A" and a "Street Demonz" tag whenever he draws an alley, whether it's in an official comic or a fan commission.

** There is one notable tag. Artist Dave Gibbons drew a stylzed "G" as part of the repeating graffiti, usually alongside "Who Watches the Watchmen?". So you could say that he tagged the landscape.

* The Swedish strip ''ComicBook/{{Rocky}}'' has a RunningGag where the word "Penis" is spraypainted everywhere.

* In ''ComicBook/TopTen'', the graffitti around Neopolis is a part of the background feel of a city inhabited exclusively by super-heroes and super-villains. Almost all of it is parodies of comics tag-lines throughout history or the territorial tags of Neopolis street gangs, who are themselves parodies of super-teams. The men-room graffiti at ''Godz'' (a bar patronized solely by PhysicalGods) is oriented toward the mythological clientele of the bar.

* British artist Norm Breyfogle (best known for his work on Batman in the late '80s and early '90s) almost ''always'' draws an Anarchy "A" and a "Street Demonz" tag whenever he draws an alley, whether it's in an official comic or a fan commission.

* The ''Film/StarskyAndHutch'' movie [[ShownTheirWork didn't fall to this]]. At the scene where the pair meets Huggy Bear, the graffiti on the background are very authentic-looking 1970s-style graffiti.

* The film ''Film/DemolitionMan'' has LaResistance using time bombs to speed-paint grafitti on surfaces - which have built-in automated grafitti-erasers eliminate it three seconds later, so one wonders why they bother.

* One of the classic sketches of ''Seris/SaturdayNightLive'' was a fake commercial starring real-life New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. He announced a new anti-graffiti measure whereby first-time offenders would have "Sucks!" spray-painted under their tag. Second-timers would have a specially trained artist write "Sucks!" in the same script that you did. And woe be to third-timers: Their tags would be saddled with "Sucks Big Time!"
* The walls of New Cap City in ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' contain many graffitis, some generic and others of some importance. One of the important ones is the stylised "T" symbols that represents [[spoiler: Tamara]]. The other one is the image of a man and a caption reading "This is not me. It's just my body vehicle". The latter graffiti has sparked some EpilepticTrees, particularly because the camera [[LawOfConservationOfDetail spent so much time focused on it]].

* You can also do this in the ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'' series, a shameless (and awesome) GTA clone. scrawling to colorful murals.

* In ''VideoGame/RememberMe'' several are spreaded all over the place in the [[WretchedHive Slum 404]] where the [[AddledAddict Sensen addicted]] Leapers live in UrbanSegregation.

* The filthy restroom in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry1InTheLandOfTheLoungeLizards'' game has graffiti all over the walls of the toilet. If you read enough of them, you find a clue.

* The filthy restroom in the first ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'' game has graffiti all over the walls of the toilet. If you read enough of them, you find a clue.

* You can also do this in the ''SaintsRow'' series, a shameless (and awesome) GTA clone. scrawling to colorful murals.

* Fireball 4 in the original {{Mac}} version of ''VideoGame/DarkCastle'' had "Alaric Was Here", "Huns Rule" and "Vandals Sack". The [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis]] version idiotically replaced these with "Gamers Rule" and "Saddam Was Here".

* in ''City Of Silence'' by WarrenEllis and Gary Erskine most of the Graffiti are scrawled phrases like "No Mercy No Future" or "Psycho Christian Rappers Suck".

Since the 1970s, UsefulNotes/{{graffiti}} have become an increasingly common occurrence in urban areas, and you probably won't find a back alley or an underpass that doesn't have a handful of tags sprayed on, unless it's been recently buffed. Therefore, when works of fiction deal with modern urban settings, graffiti cannot be exactly ignored. In live-action movies and TV series, one can just film the real things, but with comics, animation and video games, the artists must stretch their own imagination.

* In Step 4 of ''ThereSheIs'', the spread of hateful graffiti mirrors the growing social intolerance toward Doki and Nabi's forbidden cat/rabbit relationship, covering even the vending machines where they first met. In the Final Step, we see them cleaning it off as a sign that things are going to get better (as well as offering a nice BookEnds finale).

* The '70s New York-themed queue line for the former ''Ride/{{Kongfrontation}}'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]] naturally contained a lot of graffiti. At times, there were small events held where guests were allowed to add their own graffiti to the walls.