Phallic graffiti
{{Short description|Type of graffiti representing male genitalia}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name = Phallic graffiti
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| image = Dick graffiti @ Annecy (39034086050).jpg
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| image_caption = A phallus graffiti on a wall in Annecy, 2018
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| type = Phallus
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| classification = Graffiti
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Phallic graffiti (alternatively dick graffiti, penis graffiti, or cock and balls graffiti) is the illustration of the male sex organ rendered as graffiti. Phallic graffiti commonly incorporate both the penis and testicles and, whilst they can be considered lewd in nature, have been produced in specific cultural settings throughout history.
History
=Cock and balls of antiquity=
==Greece==
At the beginning of the 21st century, phallic graffiti dating back to the 5th and 6th century BC was discovered on the Greek island of Astypalaia. Nearby inscriptions also revealed evidence of the carved illustrations being related to homosexual intercourse. The inscriptions were some of the oldest known graffiti of phalli recorded.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Helena |title=2,500-year-old erotic graffiti found in unlikely setting on Aegean island |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/06/worlds-earliest-erotic-graffiti-astypalaia-classical-greece#:~:text=Two%20penises%20engraved%20into%20limestone,of%20Dion%2C%22%20said%20Vlachopoulos. |work=The Guardian |date=6 July 2014}}
==Rome==
Archeological records have shown the phallus to have been a common symbol in ancient Roman graffiti. Hadrian's Wall, bordering the northern frontier of the former Roman province of Britannia, is notable for the abundant examples of phallic graffiti carved upon it. Whilst in the metropole the divine fascinus could serve as a good luck symbol, at the outer reaches of the empire phallic graffiti has been interpreted as representative of the latent sexual violence of imperialism.{{cite news |last1=Holland |first1=Tom |author-link1=Tom Holland (author) |title=The Romans took their graffiti seriously – especially the phalluses |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/28/roman-britain-phalluses-hadrians-wall |work=The Guardian |date=28 February 2019}} In 2022 a volunteer excavating part of the Vindolanda site in Northumberland discovered a rock inscribed with a personal insult, {{lang|la|Secundinus cacator}}, alongside a representation of a penis. More phallic graffiti has been unearthed at Vindolanda than anywhere else along Hadrian's Wall.{{cite web |last1=Sharp |first1=Sarah Rose |title=1,700-Year-Old Penis Graffiti Found at Ancient Roman Site |url=https://hyperallergic.com/738710/penis-graffiti-found-at-ancient-roman-site/ |website=Hyperallergic |date=9 June 2022}}
=Dicks of the Dark Ages=
During the Middle Ages phallic motifs, such as the phallus tree, were often present in marginalia. Graffiti depictions of medieval ballock knyves have also been interpreted as phallic symbols.{{cite journal |last1=Nøttveit |first1=Ole-Magne |title=The Kidney Dagger as a Symbol of Masculine Identity – The Ballock Dagger in the Scandinavian Context |journal=Norwegian Archaeological Review |date=2006 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=138–150 |doi=10.1080/00293650600913865}} Although, they may have had a more nuanced meaning, representing a rite of passage into adulthood for adolescent boys.{{cite thesis |last=Coskun |first=Abigail |date=2020 |title=Life and Death, Demons and Devotion: the Medieval Graffiti of Surrey's Parish Churches |pages=57–58 |degree=BA |publisher=University of Durham |url= https://www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk/sites/default/files/FINAL%20DISSERTATION%20DISTRIBUTION%20COPY%20%281%29.pdf}}
=The early modern phallus=
During the 17th century workers labouring on Valencia Cathedral in the Kingdom of Valencia are known to have produced phallic sgraffito over the work of Renaissance painter Paolo da San Leocadio.{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Philippa |author-link1=Philippa Perry |title=You can't beat a cock and balls as graffiti |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/cock-and-balls-graffiti |work=The Guardian |date=10 October 2012}} Their endeavours were rediscovered during renovation work at the cathedral in 2012.{{cite news |last1=Tremlett |first1=Giles |author-link1=Giles Tremlett |title=Restorers tackle obscene 17th-century graffiti on rediscovered frescoes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/08/restorers-tackle-graffiti-rediscovered-frescoes |work=The Guardian |date=8 October 2012}}
{{Gallery
|title=Historical phallic graffiti
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|File:Incised carving of phallus - Roman carving.jpg
|A typical example of an incised Roman phallus from Hadrian's Wall, displayed at Chesters
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|File:Incised phallus, Barcombe Roman Quarry - geograph.org.uk - 2868050.jpg
|A phallic graffiti carved into the side of the Roman quarry at Barcombe in East Sussex, England
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|File:Nîmes - Temple de Diane - 20190507 (1).jpg
|Early modern graffiti phallus on the walls of the Temple of Diana, Nîmes, France
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Contemporary phallic graffiti
In 2016 the arts website Widewalls declared the 21st century to be “a new age of penis graffiti”.{{cite web |last1=Pantelić |first1=Ksenija |title=Are We Looking at a New Age of Penis Graffiti ? |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/penis-graffiti-2 |website=Widewalls |date=7 October 2016}} Contemporary phallic graffiti is produced in a variety of social contexts and can be understood accordingly. A rudimentary interpretation uses Freudian analysis of such inscriptions to conclude that they are a simple form of rebellion by marginalised groups such as the working class or children.{{cite news |last1=Perry |first1=Philippa |author-link1=Philippa Perry |title=You can't beat a cock and balls as graffiti |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/cock-and-balls-graffiti |work=The Guardian |date=10 October 2012}} However, phallic graffiti can represent complex commentaries on social relationships. In 2010, renovation work at the library of Utrecht University included the erasure of over 50 examples of phallic graffiti. The inscriptions had been created as part of a symbolic conflict between two groups of students organised into traditional societies ({{lang|nl|studentencorps}}). Utrecht students of a higher socio-economic background tended to emphasise the status of their society through the use of penis graffiti. However, students from less advantaged circumstances, aligned with the opposing society, lampooned the former with counter-penis graffiti. The phallic inscriptions represented the specific interplay of class conflict within Utrecht University’s student cohort.{{cite web |last1=Schouwenburg |first1=Hans |title=The Tale of the Four Foot Phallus |url=https://www.shellsandpebbles.com/2013/07/07/the-tale-of-the-four-foot-phallus/ |website=Shells and Pebbles |publisher=Utrecht University |date=7 July 2013}}
Particularly in a scholastic context, modern phallic graffiti has been likened to its ancient antecedents. For example, the phenomenon of penis inscriptions in English Secondary schools has been linked back to Roman veneration of Priapus,{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Caroline |title=The writing's on the wall for penis graffiti |url=https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/writings-wall-penis-graffiti |website=TES |date=13 June 2015}} whilst phallic arborglyphs, such as that left on trees in Dulwich Wood by the so-called Penis Gang and attributed to local students, has been directly compared to their Ancient equivalent.{{cite news |last1=Mount |first1=Harry |author-link1=Harry Mount |title=The Roman roots of the Dulwich Wood Penis Gang |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-roman-roots-of-the-dulwich-wood-penis-gang/ |work=The Spectator |date=23 November 2024}}
=Artistic representations=
In the 21st century phallic graffiti have been utilised as a form of artistic expression. In June 2010, the Russian street art group Voina painted a prodigious penis on the Liteyny Bridge in Saint Petersburg. The work, titled Dick Captured by the FSB, was placed on the road of the bridge situated opposite the offices of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Three minutes after the group had executed their artwork the bridge rose, thereby facing the now erect phallus directly at the offices of the FSB on the opposing side of the river. Immediately after the action had taken place, one member of the group involved was arrested at the site by police.{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Oliver |title=War on the Ru-net: Voina's Dick Captured by the FSB as a Networked Performance |journal=Third Text |date=2013 |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=591–606 |doi=10.1080/09528822.2013.832075}} Dick Captured by the FSB went on to be awarded the 2010 prize for innovation by the National Centre for Contemporary Arts.{{cite news |last1=Parfitt |first1=Tom |title=Voina, art group backed by Banksy, wins Russian prize for erection |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/08/voina-banksy-penis-prize |work=The Guardian |date=8 April 2011}}
In 2014 a stencil by Banksy in Folkestone, Kent titled Art Buff, depicting a woman staring at an empty plinth, had a phallus spray painted over it as if part of the original.{{cite news |title=Banksy mural Art Buff vandalised |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/13/banksy-mural-vandalised-art-buff-folkstone-penis |work=The Guardian |agency=Press Association |date=13 October 2014}} In 2016 residents of Brussels petitioned for a series of sexually explicit street art pieces, which included a monumental painting of a phallus on the side of a building in the city centre, to be retained. The graffiti of a penis was painted in the style of pointillism on a wall in the Saint-Gilles area of the city. Despite the public outcry, the council decided to remove the penis and replace it with a commissioned artwork.{{cite news |last1=Haigh |first1=Marilyn |title=Brussels residents petition to keep lewd mural |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/brussels-residents-petition-to-keep-lewd-mural-idUSL8N1CG32R/ |work=Reuters |date=11 October 2016}}
=The gendered phallus=
Phallic graffiti is commonly assumed to have been executed by males, and is often particularly attributed to pubescent youths. For instance, the street artist Vaj has specifically identified phallic graffiti as an exercise in marking out public space as a male domain.{{cite web |last1=Solis |first1=Marie |title=Meet the Feminist Street Artist Who Gave a Queen Victoria Statue a Makeover |url=https://www.mic.com/articles/132547/meet-the-feminist-street-artist-who-gave-a-queen-victoria-statue-a-makeover#.b0HSPqRQs |website=MIC |date=14 January 2016}} Her analysis draws on a feminist critique which views the phenomenon of phallic graffiti as an example of toxic masculinity. Such renderings are thus considered to be overtly chauvinistic and amount to a visual extension of patriarchal power relations in public space.{{cite web |last1=Hamlett |first1=Melanie |title=Sorry, but Even Dumb Penis Drawings Are About Toxic Masculinity |url=https://www.glamour.com/story/even-penis-drawings-are-about-toxic-masculinity |website=Glamour |date=20 November 2017}}
The question over the gender identity of phallic graffiti artists has been portrayed in popular media such as the BBC One comedy-drama Love, Nina. In the fourth episode of the series, the characters, fictionalised members of Mary-Kay Wilmers’s household, debate the hypothetical gender of the painter of a cock and balls which has been sprayed onto their Primrose Hill property.{{cite AV media |people= |date=3 June 2016 |title=The great gender-graffiti debate |type=Media clip |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03x521j |access-date= |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=BBC |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote= }}
A 2016 study of latrinalia in London found that 46% of all illustrations drawn in male public toilets were phalluses, whilst equivalent graffiti in female public conveniences did include penises this was at a rate of only 0.14% of overall illustrations. However, female illustrators of phallic graffiti were discovered to have significantly enlarged the penis in relation to the testicles at a rate of 80:20 in comparison to that of males at 60:40.{{cite podcast |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06qml38 |title=The Boring Talks: #22 - Toilet Graffiti |website= |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |first1=James|last1=Ward|author-link1=James Ward (writer)|date=5 November 2014 |time= |access-date=}}
However, despite the common assumption that the gender of illustrators of phallic graffiti is male, many instances of women producing phallic graffiti have been recorded. For example, in 2017 the graffiti artist Carolina Falkholt painted a giant phallic graffiti on the side of a building in Lower East Side, New York. The following year she replicated her original artwork on the side of a residential building in Kungsholmen, Stockholm. In an interview with Hyperallergic Falkholt said that the works reflected "the industrialized penile system."{{cite web |last1=Sharp |first1=Sarah Rose |title=Artist's Phallus Murals Challenge Viewers "to Think Deeper, Longer, Wider, Harder" |url=https://hyperallergic.com/439977/artists-phallus-murals-challenge-viewers-to-think-deeper-longer-wider-harder/ |website=Hyperallergic |date=27 April 2018}} The Russian artist Natalia Sokol, a member of the street art collective Voina, took a prominent role in executing the group's phallic artwork on the Liteyny Bridge.{{cite web |last1=Bown |first1=Matthew |title=The Dick of the Matter |url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/brown/voina4-29-11.asp |website=Artnet |date=7 April 2011}}
Sometimes interpreted as a pro-trans statement, the tag Penis Girl, which first came to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the pseudonym of notable a graffiti artist from Portland.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Suzette |title=Portland's Favorite Graffiti Tag Is Penis Girl. |url=https://www.wweek.com/arts/visual-arts/2021/07/21/portlands-favorite-graffiti-tag-is-penis-girl/ |work=Willamette Week |date=21 July 2021}} Penis Girl tags were initially distributed across areas of East Portland, before spreading to Hawaii. Penis Girl provoked controversy within the graffiti art scene, inspiring both erasure and copycat tags.{{cite web |last1=Jahncke |first1=Jennifer |title=The Penis Girl Observer |url=https://jennifer-jahncke.netlify.app/project/the-penis-girl-observer/ |website=Jennifer Jahncke |publisher=Netlify |date=8 July 2020}} In 2022 the sculptor vanessa german produced the eponymous artwork titled PENIS GIRL, which featured a female figure adorned with 17 ceramic phalli.{{cite web |title=vanessa german PENIS GIRL |url=https://www.kasmingallery.com/exhibitions/80/works/artworks-35165-vanessa-german-penis-girl-inspired-by-whomever-is-the-genius-2022/ |website=Kasmin Gallery}}
In 2023 a Colombian female graffiti artist painted a phallus on a wall as part of a larger mural celebrating Afro-Colombians in Cartagena. The graffiti proved controversial with local media outlets calling for the painting to be removed. The artist herself later claimed the work was a critique of sex tourism in the city.{{cite news |title=Polémica por gigantesco mural con un pene en pleno centro histórico de Cartagena |url=https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2023/05/25/polemica-por-gigantesco-mural-de-un-pene-en-pleno-centro-historico-de-cartagena/ |work=Infobae |date=25 May 2023 |language=Es}}
=Antipha=
File:Abajo el heteropatriarcado graffiti.jpg’) alongside a Venus symbol covering phallic graffiti in León, 2019]]
Often considered lewd and indecent, phallic graffiti have been the target of responsive anti-phallic graffiti measures. Such campaigns have often incorporated a satirical element designed to publicly highlight issues of sexual health.
In 2017 an anonymous street artist in London began a campaign to highlight increasing rates of Sexually transmitted infections by stencilling images of condoms over phallic graffiti. The campaign was initially designed to subvert phallic graffiti, which the artist opposed the presence of in public space.{{cite web |last1=Puckett |first1=Lily |title=This Artist Put Condoms Over Penis Graffiti |url=https://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/artist-draws-condoms-over-penis-graffiti |website=Teen Vogue |date=17 May 2017}}{{cite news |last1=Kee |first1=Caroline |title=This Guy Is "Protecting" Graffiti Penises With Condoms |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinekee/man-puts-condoms-on-graffiti-penises?utm_term=.lfJLP9bxz#.bnJdxq8YD |work=BuzzFeed News |publisher=BuzzFeed |date=17 May 2017}}
A similar campaign was designed by the advertising agency McCann in 2022 in the Chilean capital of Santiago. The project utilised hand-shaped stickers which were then stuck over phallic graffiti as a way to bring attention to the issue of testicular cancer.{{cite web |last1=Longrigg |first1=Jack |title=McCann Santiago gives penis graffiti a purpose |url=https://www.famouscampaigns.com/2022/03/mccann-santiago-gives-penis-graffiti-a-purpose/ |website=Famous Campaigns |date=21 March 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Diaz |first1=Anne-Christine |title=Penis Graffiti Shows you How to Check Your Testicles for Tumors |url=https://adage.com/creativity/work/penis-graffiti-campaign-shows-how-check-testicular-cancer/2405976 |website=Ad Age |date=15 March 2022}}
Gallery
File:Pompeji Phallus.jpg|Phallic graffiti at the Odeon in Pompeii
File:Phallic Graffiti on a Tree at Old Sarum.jpg|A phallic arborglyph on a beech at the site of Old Sarum in Wiltshire, England
File:Nawój i jego ptasie (Poznan, Park Kosynierów).jpg|Anti-phallic graffiti, reading {{lang|pl|Nawój kutasie opanuj swe ptasie}}, sprayed onto a wall in Poznań, Poland
File:Scheune in Obergriesheim.jpg|A phallus spray painted onto a timber framed barn in Heilbronn, Germany, 2015
File:BB 26027.jpg|An SNCF Class BB 26000 adorned with a penis drawn into the dust on its cab in Nièvre, France, 2017
File:Phallic graffiti LU 2009 Stock.jpg|A London Underground 2009 Stock with phallic graffiti on its cab stands at Oxford Circus, 2025
File:Graffiti penis-mafia grossgoerschenstr-31 2023-03-22.png|The Penis Mafia on a residence in Schöneberg, Germany, 2023
File:Fabianowo Poznan graffiti.JPG|Derogatory graffiti, utilising a phallus, aimed at fans of Wisła Kraków. Pictured in Poznań, Poland, 2016
File:PM 091143 E Granada.jpg|Cock and balls graffiti on a garage door in Granada, Spain, 2015
File:Street Art Porto (38678262191).jpg|Winged phallus graffiti on a wall in Porto, Portugal, 2017
File:Logroño graffiti 14.JPG|Winged phallus graffiti in Logroño, Spain, 2012
File:Carved penis.JPG|Phallus inscribed into the wall of Klučov railway station, Czech Republic, 2010
File:Tory Scum.jpg|A protest penis sprayed onto the Millbank Tower during the 2010 student protest in London
File:BLM - 003. (50216555152).jpg|Phallic graffiti reading ‘Confederates suck my dick’, stencilled onto the Jefferson Davis Memorial, Monument Avenue. The graffiti was produced during the George Floyd protests in Richmond, Virginia in 2020
File:Pintada de "Me cuidan lxs pibxs no la policía" - Uruguay 2024.jpg|Phallic graffiti in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is overwritten with the text {{lang|es|Me cuidan lxs pibxs no la policía}} (The guys protect me not the police)
File:Fuck the World by Carolina Falkholt in 2018 (4 av 4).jpg|A large street art phallus by Carolina Falkholt in Stockholm, 2018
File:Lion relief, Kingswood Estate.jpg|Phallic graffiti under a relief of a lion, Kingswood Estate, 2025
Further reading
- {{cite journal |last1=Melgaço |first1=Lucas |title='Porn' graffiti in public space: Between moralization and agonism |journal=Tijdschrift over Cultuur & Criminaliteit |date=August 2020 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=71–83 |doi=10.5553/TCC/221195072020010001006}}