How did tag graffiti end up very similar everywhere?

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Broadly speaking, I’ve noticed 2 “styles” of tag graffiti: Serif-y line signature-like tags and big bubble writing. This is broadly speaking, there are of course subtleties, but as an outsider, graffiti can look very similar and does feel like they mostly fall into these 2 groups, whether it’s in North America, Europe, etc. You don’t usually hear “that is European style tagging”, I just see bubbly text no matter the location, and they not noticeable different to an outsider the way, say, American food looks different than Chinese food.

Was tagging a thing everywhere and they happened to look similar? Did styles in different places converge? Was there a cult of bubble taggers and the leader told them to spread the gospel around the world? Am I wrong with a biased dataset (noting of course there can be lesser seen visual styles)? ELI5.

Flairing as “other” as this is sort of a sociology topic, probably.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I don’t get why most answers are about the history and social aspects of street art ?

**Real ELI5 : Because it’s a very efficient style.**

“Bubbly” writing is pretty much the best way to make letters huge, bold, legible from afar, **and in a very short time** (not to get caught).

Any other writing style you can think of, will be either less convenient to make in a large size, or less legible from afar, and/or they’ll take much longer to make.

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