---
title: "Graffiti"
description: "Unsanctioned writing or images applied to surfaces in public view, from simple tagging to elaborate lettering styles carrying a half-century of subculture."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/graffiti"
---

# Graffiti

> Unsanctioned writing or images applied to surfaces in public view, from simple tagging to elaborate lettering styles carrying a half-century of subculture.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/graffiti

The graffiti-versus-street-art distinction is contested, but the working
version goes: graffiti traditions center lettering and the writer's name,
addressed in large part to other writers; street art typically centers
imagery addressed to the general public. Permission is a separate axis:
plenty of celebrated work began unsanctioned, and plenty of sanctioned work
borrows graffiti's style.

Municipal responses span rapid-removal policies, restorative-justice
programs, legal walls, and commissioning pipelines that hire from the
culture rather than against it. Most cities run several of these at once,
which is less contradictory than it sounds: tagging a heritage façade and
painting a masterpiece on a sanctioned wall are different acts, and policy
can say so.

Related terms: [Street art](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/street-art), [Legal wall](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/legal-wall), [Anti-graffiti coating](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/anti-graffiti-coating)

## Mentioned in

- [Condition report form](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/condition-report-form)
- [Public art inventory field checklist](https://www.civiccollection.com/toolkit/public-art-inventory-field-checklist)