Draft:Phallic graffiti

Phallic graffiti
A phallus graffiti on a wall in Annecy, 2018
Type	Phallus
Material	Spray paint Marker pen Sgraffito
Classification	Graffiti

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 cultures through 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.

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. In 2022 a volunteer excavating part of the Vindolanda site in Northumberland discovered a rock inscribed with a personal insult, Secundinus cacator, alongside a representation of a penis. More phallic graffiti has been unearthed at Vindolanda than anywhere else along Hadrian's Wall.

A typical example of an incised Roman phallus from Hadrian's Wall, displayed at Chesters

Modern phallic graffiti, such as that left on trees in Dulwich Wood by the so-called Penis Gang, has been directly compared to their ancient Roman equivalant.

A phallic graffiti carved into the side of the Roman quarry at Barcombe in East Sussex, England

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 been interpreted as phallic symbols… Although the accuracy of this interpretation has been challenged? What pages and how?

The early modern phallus

17th century workers who drew phallic graffiti (sgraffito?) on the work of Renaissance painter Paolo da San Leocadio.

Early modern graffiti phallus on the walls of the Temple of Diana, Nîmes, France

Contemporary phallic graffiti

Maybe begin here by summarising article declaring the 21st century to be a new age of phallic graffiti.

Random article about a four foot phallus painted in Utrecht University.

Artistic representations

The Russian street art group Voina painted a huge penis on the what bridge in Moscow. The work, titled…, was opposite the offices of the FSB. The group later won the prestigious (what) award.

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.

A series of sexually explicit street art pieces in Brussels included a monumental painting of a phallus on the side of a building in the city centre. The graffiti of a penis was painted in the style of pointillism. Academic-ish article here.

The gendered phallus

Phallic graffiti is often assumed to have been executed by males, and is often particularly attributed to pubescent youths.

Toxic masculinity article - argues that they are chauvinistic and amount to a simple visual extension of patriarchal power relations in public space.

The question over the gender of phallic graffiti artists is one that has been portrayed in popular media such as the BBC One comedy drama Love, Nina. In the fourth episode of the series the characters, the fictionalised members of Mary-Kay Wilmers’s household, debate the likely painter of a cock and balls which has been sprayed on their Primrose Hill property.

A 2016 study of latrinalia in London found that 46% of all illustrations drawn by men in 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.

Despite the common assumption that the gender of illustrators of phallic graffiti is male, many instances of women producing phallic graffiti have been recorded. Eg The graffiti artist Carolina Falkholt, and the Russian artist Natalia Sokol who, as part of the Russian street art collective Voina, painted the artwork A Dick Held Prisoner at the FSB. Their phallic graffiti later went on to be awarded the 2010 prize for innovation by the National Centre for Contemporary Arts.

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. Article about distribution of graffiti and can now be found in Honolulu. In 2022 the sculptor vanessa german produced the eponymous artwork titled PENIS GIRL, which featured a female figure adorned with 17 ceramic phalli.

Antipha

Graffiti reading Abajo el heteropatriarcado (‘Down with the heteropatriarchy’) alongside a Venus symbol covering phallic graffiti in León, 2019

Often considered lewd and indecent, phallic graffiti have been the target of anti-phallic graffiti measures. Such campaigns have often incorporated a satirical element designed to publicly highlight issues of sexual health.

Maybe in Roman section? Secondary school teacher writing in the TES about eradicating phallic graffiti in schools. Links back to Roman veneration of Ancient Greek God Priapus.

2017 campaign in London in which images of condoms were stencilled over phallic graffiti in order to raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases.

2022 campaign by McCann in the Chilean capital of Santiago, which utilised hand-shaped stickers stuck over phallic graffiti as a way to highlight the issue of testicular cancer.

Examples

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  Phallic graffiti at the Odeon in Pompeii
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  A phallic arborglyph on a beech at the site of Old Sarum in Wiltshire, England
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  Anti-phallic graffiti, reading Nawój kutasie opanuj swe ptasie, sprayed onto a wall in Poznań, Poland
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  A phallus spray painted onto a timber framed barn in Heilbronn, Germany, 2015
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  An SNCF Class BB 26000 adorned with a penis drawn into the dust on its cab in Nièvre, France, 2017
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  The Penis Mafia on a residence in Schöneberg, Germany, 2023
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  Derogatory graffiti, utilising a phallus, aimed at fans of Wisła Kraków. Pictured in Poznań, Poland, 2016
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  Cock and balls graffiti on a garage door in Granada, Spain, 2015
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  Winged phallus graffiti on a wall in Porto, Portugal, 2017
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  Winged phallus graffiti in Logroño, Spain, 2012
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  Phallus inscribed into the wall of Klučov railway station, Czech Republic, 2010
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  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