Tagging is costly

By Sean Steward
Summer Forty-Niner

Tagging continues to be a problem at Cal State Long Beach, already costing the university about $11,000 in labor and materials to remove.

The most primitive form of graffiti art, tagging consists of a writer's signature and is usually done in permanent marker or spray paint. These individual marks, slogans or slurs usually are found in high-visibility areas. A tag is usually decorated with a variety of stylish marks.

"Tagging is like the entry-level position in the graffiti world," said Sherri Cavan, a sociology professor at San Francisco State.

"People enter the graffiti world for a number of reasons. They have something to express, even if that expressions is 'This is me and I was here.' They enter to have a shared system of meaning and activity, and
they strive to achieve status by the number, height or complexity of tags."

During this time of year, more people are likely to come on campus, so it tends to raise the possibilities of it happening here on campus, CSULB police Lt. Stan Skipworth said.

"It's not a on-going problem because we try to prevent it as much as possible," Skipworth said. "Most of the prevention is through foot patrols, talking to people and just being alert. Depending on the public to notify us is key to prevention."

"For the last 20 years it's been a tradition," said Constance Glenn, director of CSULB Art Museum. "I don't think or know where this tradition is going though, but currently it has an audience, which is due to its long history. But tagging is vandalism and it's defacing property."

According to the Long Beach Municipal Code, defacing property is a misdemeanor.

"Depending on the cost of the repair it could be considered a felony," Lt. Skipworth said. "We would assure full restitution to the person and property that was vandalized."

Nevertheless, some people enjoy colorful tags. "Graffiti art is very expressive," said Kari Eckelbarger, a CSULB art student.  "However, taggers give graffiti artists a bad name because they just tag on anything and anywhere. It really has no meaning."