Tagging is a form of urban cancer on its own. Full stop. But depending on what is writen, the border between reactionism and vandalism blurs.

I grew up in a very urban setting, after a political revolution, and the graffiti on the walls were words of anger, of calling out those who had cooperated with the old regime, slurs, etc.

Every word, line, trace, was disfiguring the buildings, statues and whatever surface it landed on but carried meaning, a message.

The Pompeii graffiti were gratuitous in nature but it was a city and part of a civilization know for being prone to excess. Today, those graffiti are living testaments of our colective history, although not much diferent from common and crude public bathroom scribbles.