Vandalism in Acton Possibly Result of TikTok Trend.
Acton UP received a report from a local citizen Brian Houghton on July 2, 2022 about vandalism that took place at Danville Park in Acton. The vandalism consisted of various “tags”, including names and a penis done in black marker, paint, white out and other products scattered across the small playground.
Brian went to take his 1 and 2 year old to play at the park where he found the vandalism. Brian tells Acton UP, “ Well it was actually pretty funny , was taking my 1 and 2 year old to the park when we saw the graffiti. Lucky my son being too young to know what was drawn on the park (penis) he said daddy people drawing scissors on the park. Lol . We were disappointed because we had to tell the kids that they couldn’t play that day at the park .”
Brian’s son Noah told him that the tags made him feel “sad”.
Tagging is a form of graffiti which according to Encyclopedia Britannica is “the repeated use of a single symbol or series of symbols to mark territory. In order to attract the most attention possible, this type of graffiti usually appeared in strategically or centrally located neighbourhoods.” However different from graffiti which is much more artistic and makes use of colour and drawing, tagging is just the scribbling of a name or nick name, often in a single colour or shade.
Subsequently an Acton UP Owner asked his 13 year old son, if he knew anything about youth doing tagging around town. He figured his son is “around that age that he may know something”. His son responded that currently there is a TikTok trend (the popular social media app where users create short videos) which teaches people how to tag. Two popular “artists” going by the names “Sano” from Stockholm Sweden and Wekman from Russia are among the most prominent.
In their Youtube and TikTok videos, the two can be seen across various locations throughout Europe “Bombing” (a term used for tagging) local trains, signs, mailboxes etc., really anything with a writable surface. The two have their faces blurred in videos and their voices changed to ensure anonymity.
It appears the tagging at Danville Park closely resembled a version of the “Sano” tag with variations of it littered throughout the playground. Tags such as “Sano” and “Sane” could be found among others.
Acton UP reached out to Mayor Rick Bonnette for comment who said, “This is a senseless act of vandalism by someone with the IQ of roadkill. Vandalism like this comes out of our pockets as town staff have to clean this up.“
The vandalism has since been reported to the town, and as of today (July 12, 2022) it looks like it has somewhat been cleaned up, however remnants can still be found.
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