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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There is no such thing as “tag graffiti” although you probably mean all illegal graffiti. Tag is just simple writing, with one color, done by a paint can or a marker like what you can see at a bar or club bathroom. They can be very simple and easy to read or highly stylized and harder to read.
Those big bubble things are called throwies. They can be also done hollow by just one color, or with two or more colors, with the letters filled and outlined with a contrasting color.
As to why most graffiti looks the same all over the world, I think its mostly because of the internet. People get inspired and copy certain elements. There are some region specific graffiti styles, for example in Brasil you can see graffiti unlike anywhere else. Also theres a style of tagging originating from Philadelphia which is very unique and some writers get pissed when someone not from Philly tries to copy or emulate it.
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