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tart card

{{short description|Cards placed in phone booths to advertise the services of call girls}}

{{distinguish|text=Tarot cards}}

{{EngvarB|date=January 2015}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}}

File:Phone box prostitute calling cards 1.jpg advertising the services of call girls in London, 2005]]

A tart card is a card which advertises the services of a prostitute. The cards are found in many countries, usually in capital cities or red-light districts. Originating in the 1960s, the cards are placed in locations such as newsagents' windows or telephone boxes. Alternatively they are handed out or dropped in the street. Legal action is sometimes taken against their use. Illustrated tart cards from the 1980s and 1990s have come to be regarded as examples of sub-cultural outsider art.

History

In England and Wales the Sexual Offences Act 1956 made soliciting for street prostitution illegal. As a result, indoor sex work became more common and sex workers began to advertise their services and telephone numbers on small, cheaply produced cards in the windows of newsagents.{{cite web|title=Dial 'S' for Sex: A History of a Phone-Booth Subculture in the United Kingdom|url=https://brewminate.com/dial-s-for-sex-a-history-of-a-phone-booth-subculture-in-the-united-kingdom/|first=Kate|last=Lister|date=17 October 2018|website=Brewminate}} Known as tart cards, they became established in the 1960s in places such as Soho, London, where they were typically handwritten postcards which were displayed outside prostitutes' flats or in the windows of newsagents or shops. As direct references to prostitution would generally be unacceptable, the cards were carefully worded and often contained euphemistic references to sex, with terms such as large chest for sale.{{cite book |last= Thomas |first=Donald |date=2005 |title=Villains' Paradise: Britain's Underworld from the Spivs to the Krays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MY5bBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT224 |publisher=John Murray |pages=528 |isbn=978-0719557347 |access-date=9 August 2015 }}

The abolition of the 1953 Post Office Act in 1984 inadvertently legalised the placement of advertisements in telephone boxes, and they became the main location for tart cards, particularly in London. By the late 1980s the cards had become black-and-white photocopied cards containing printed text and telephone numbers.{{cite web|title=17 Boxes of Smut From The Euston Road|url=http://londonist.com/2008/03/17_boxes_of_smu.php|publisher=Londonist|access-date=18 July 2014|date=2008-03-27}} The cards from the 1980s and 1990s often included black-and-white drawings printed on neon-coloured card along with tongue-in-cheek phrases.{{cite web|website=Dangerous Minds|title=London Calling: a Look at Vintage 'Tart Cards' Used by English Prostitutes|url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/london_calling_a_look_at_vintage_tart_cards_used_by_english_prostitutes|author=Cherrybomb|date=5 July 2017}} In larger cities, the cards were placed in phone boxes.{{cite news |url=http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/cork/99london/fonegirl.html |title=Crackdown on telephone box 'tartcards' |publisher=PA News |date=16 May 1999}} The style of illustration changed in the early twenty-first century, when tart cards began to appear with full-colour nude photographs, mobile telephone numbers and websites.{{cite web|author=Russell Dornan|title=Putting the art into "tart"|url=http://blog.wellcomecollection.org/tag/tart-cards/|publisher=The Wellcome Collection Blog|date=21 March 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140725040119/https://blog.wellcomecollection.org/tag/tart-cards/ |archive-date=25 July 2014}}

The cards from the 1980s and 1990s have become a memorable part of London counter-culture from that era. Over time they have become regarded as items of "accidental art" and developed a cult following. They have influenced the work of mainstream artists, inspiring collections, research,{{cite web|title=The Typographic Hub: Tart Cards|url=http://www.typographichub.org/research/entry/tart-cards-project/|publisher=Birmingham Institute of Art & Design|access-date=18 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303114206/http://www.typographichub.org/research/entry/tart-cards-project/|archive-date=3 March 2011}} exhibitions{{cite web|title=Tart Cards Exhibition|url=http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/latest/calendar/tart-cards-exhibition/|publisher=Plymouth College of Art|date= 9–27 January 2012|access-date=18 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727093201/http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/latest/calendar/tart-cards-exhibition/|archive-date=27 July 2014}}{{cite web|title=Sex Issue: Type Tart Cards|url=http://www.wallpaper.com/sex-issue/tart-cards|publisher=Wallpaper magazine|access-date=18 July 2014|date=11 June 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090614042715/http://www.wallpaper.com/sex-issue/tart-cards|archive-date=14 June 2009}} and books such as the 2003 publication Tart Cards: London’s Illicit Advertising Art. Subsequently, they have been recognised as a sociological record of trends related to sex work, advertising, design and print.{{cite news|title=London's 'tart cards' reveal history of sex work, design and printing|url=https://www.euronews.com/2020/02/27/london-s-tart-cards-reveal-history-of-sex-work-design-and-printing|first=Stephanie|last=Bosset|date=28 February 2020|website=Euronews}} The Wellcome Collection in London contains thousands of examples, just over half of which advertise BDSM services.

Tart cards by country

File:Prostitutoin Adverts.jpg

File:Pinkchirashi-phonebooth-tokyoarea-feb8-2010.jpg

File:Phone box with tart cards 02.jpg

  • Argentina: They are found in Buenos Aires.{{cite news|url=http://www.clarin.com/diario/2009/02/07/um/m-01853945.htm |title=Goodbye to the public telephone: only half are left and rarely used |newspaper=Clarín |language=es |date=7 February 2009}}
  • Brazil: They are found in São Paulo.{{cite news|url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/informatica/ult124u687429.shtml |first=Maurício |last=Kanno |title=Prostitutes and their adverts are coming to Twitter |publisher=Folha Online |language=pt |date=1 February 2010}}
  • China: They are commonly put under the doors of hotels during the day after the cleaning staff have finished in the rooms.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}
  • Dubai: Cards advertising "massage" services, often printed with images of women, are delivered to people's homes, placed onto car windows, and distributed by hand in the street. This practice is illegal.{{cite news|author=Mariam M. Al Serkal|title=Massage cards menace continues in Dubai|url=http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/massage-cards-menace-continues-in-dubai-1.1332422/|newspaper=Gulf News|date=14 May 2014|access-date=7 December 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515180839/https://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/massage-cards-menace-continues-in-dubai-1.1332422/|archive-date=15 May 2014}}
  • Japan: In Japan they were known as "pink flyers" (ピンクチラシ).{{cite journal|title=Cute and Cool in Contemporary Japanese Visual Arts|url=https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/cjas/article/view/4020/4403|last=Borggreen|first=Gunhild|journal=Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies|date=2011|volume=29|issue=1|page=50}}
  • Macau: They are dropped in the city's sidewalks and underpasses.{{cite news|author=Katie Hunt|title=The dark side of Asia's gambling Mecca|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/17/world/asia/macau-dark-side/|publisher=CNN|date=18 June 2013|access-date=15 August 2014}}
  • United Kingdom: in London tart cards are placed in phone boxes by professional "carders", who tour the phone boxes, replacing cards which have been removed by the telephone companies' cleaners. Carders often remove cards placed by rival carders. Placing tart cards in phone boxes was made illegal by the passing of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 which made carding punishable by up to six months imprisonment or a fine of up to £5000. By 2002 most convicted carders were receiving fines of £200–£1000, although persistent offenders were receiving jail terms of 28 days. An estimated 13 million tart cards per year were being distributed across Britain at that time; the telephone company British Telecom was removing 150,000 tart cards per week from central London telephone boxes and it had call-barred 500 of the telephone numbers used on tart cards.{{cite news|title=Call box cards used to evict prostitutes|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jul/08/2|newspaper=The Guardian|author=Diane Taylor|date=8 July 2002}} However, despite police operations against carders the practice of carding still continues.{{cite book |title=Tart Cards: London's Illicit Advertising Art |first1=Caroline |last1=Archer |first2=Rob |last2=Clayton |publisher=Mark Batty |year=2003 |isbn=9780972424042}}
  • United States: In hispanophone parts of New York City they are known as "Chica Chica" (Girl Girl) cards and men hand them out as flyers at night on the streets.{{cite news|author=Kenneth Lovett|title='Chica Chica' cards pimp hookers and prostitution, says state senator who wants to make them illegal|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/chica-chica-cards-pimp-hookers-prostitution-state-senator-illegal-article-1.121618|newspaper=NY Daily News|date=27 March 2011|access-date=23 August 2014}} In Las Vegas they are known as "sex cards" and left on sidewalks and hotel stairways{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/06/29/MN282585.DTL |title='Just Say No' – to sex – hits Las Vegas |first=Sabin |last=Russel |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |date=29 June 2003 |page=46}} or handed out as flyers.{{cite news|title=The life of the Vegas 'porn slapper': 'I don't care if they punch or hit me'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/04/las-vegas-porn-slapper-card-worker-life|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 September 2014|author=Dan Hernandez}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book |title=Tart Cards: London's Illicit Advertising Art |first1=Caroline |last1=Archer |first2=Rob |last2=Clayton |publisher=Mark Batty |location=West New York, NJ |year=2003 |isbn=978-0972424042 }}
  • {{cite magazine |title=Tart cards |first=Caroline |last=Archer |magazine=Baseline |issue=40 |year=2003 }}
  • {{cite book |title=The X-Directory: kink cards 1984/1994 |editor-first=Tony |editor-last=Devlin |publisher=Pi34 |year=1994 |location=London|isbn=978-1898760009}}
  • {{cite book |title=Vice Art: An Anthology of London's Prostitute Cards |first=Patrick |last=Jewell |publisher=Broadwater House |location=Harrogate |year=1993 |isbn=978-0952100942 }}

External links

{{commons category|Tart cards}}

  • [http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/cork/97watney/img/08.html Pictures of the inside of a phone box covered in tart cards]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20150427011741/http://www.bankholidaycomes.com/2013/06/book-club-1-the-x-directory/ Pages from The X-Directory]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20121127212531/http://www.tartart.co.uk/ Tart Art: the prostitute calling cards of London]

Category:Prostitution in the United Kingdom

Category:Advertising tools