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To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?

159 replies

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 14:26

At least in the part of the UK where I live (the North, without getting too specific…I know the North is a large area), maybe it’s a regional issue?

But I have lived in three different countries and only experienced this since moving to the UK. I never saw penis graffiti like this before moving here.

Every time I go out there is a penis scribbled somewhere. On a bus bench there is a massive one with hair and stuff squirting out that anyone who wants to relax while waiting for the bus has to sit on.

There was another along a children’s nature walk by the river, on a white wall, about 4’ tall and bright red. Thankfully someone painted over that one.

But I see them, big and small, sometimes even made with the dark juice of some random piece of fruit (as seen near a farm and wild fruit hedge, made on the path).

These are just a very small sampling of the many penises I have seen while out and about.

I suppose people will say ‘because kids’, but why not in other countries I’ve lived, where kids exist? I’m not slamming the UK, I’m genuinely curious.

OP posts:
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godmum56 · 22/08/2024 15:40

google penis pilgrim badges.

Moveoverdarlin · 22/08/2024 15:38

My neighbour is a care taker in a secondary school. He always says ‘90percent of his job role is scrubbing dicks off the wall. He said one went the entire length of a 70 corridor’. Couldn’t help but laugh when he said that. It was the same when I was at school.

My good friend is a well to do solicitor now, but she was a nightmare for drawing willies on chairs in a black marker pen. She would do it on plastic school chairs so it looked like it was poking out the bottom of your school skirt.

Oh and we’re in the SW so not just a northern thing.

FrillyKnickersAndNoFurCoat · 22/08/2024 15:38

In Watford there was Wanksy painting a penis over potholes.

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
Starlight1979 · 22/08/2024 15:37

I work in the north in a city centre and can honestly say I've never seen penis graffiti...

TheMarzipanDildo · 22/08/2024 15:37

Highest form of comedy innit.

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 22/08/2024 15:33

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 15:24

For example, when I visit family who live in a major city in the States, I don’t see penises scribbled everywhere like I do when I come back to the UK. I’m trying to figure out why there is this discrepancy. Same with another country I visit a couple of times a year, again penis street drawings are not a common occurrence there. I’m sure people are just as obsessed with the penis as anywhere else in the world, but they’re not scribbled all over the place.

I can only think that in some places they might consider it offensive- so if there is money to do it or people are willing/able (community service etc) it’ll get cleaned off as a priority, even compared to other graffiti. If you didn’t see a lot of swear words either, then I suspect that’s the case.

Whereas in the UK (and in many parts of Europe), we either don’t care as much/aren’t as easily offended, or just aren’t willing to spend the time/money to do so 🤷‍♀️

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:29

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Castlereagh · 22/08/2024 15:27

I've seen loads of cock (graffiti) in the Netherlands and Belgium 😁

eggandchip · 22/08/2024 15:26

We get it in our area never see a fanny though.

eggandchip · 22/08/2024 15:25

WiddlinDiddlin · 22/08/2024 15:06

... the truth is, the cock and balls is a classic.

😂

FlannelShirt · 22/08/2024 15:24

For example, when I visit family who live in a major city in the States, I don’t see penises scribbled everywhere like I do when I come back to the UK. I’m trying to figure out why there is this discrepancy. Same with another country I visit a couple of times a year, again penis street drawings are not a common occurrence there. I’m sure people are just as obsessed with the penis as anywhere else in the world, but they’re not scribbled all over the place.

OP posts:
Underthesinkk · 22/08/2024 15:21

Is it people though? It's men, or boys, isn't it? I always thought it was really odd at school that they drew a piece of their own anatomy. Would have made more sense to me if they'd drawn boobs...

BurningBright · 22/08/2024 15:19

The Cerne Giant is the ultimate in penis graffiti. And that's in Dorset. So I don't think it's a regional phenomenon. Or, indeed, a very modern one...

PinkyAndTheBarnacle · 22/08/2024 15:16

00BonneMaman00 · 22/08/2024 14:46

I thought you meant actual graffiti on actual penises! 🤣🍆🎨

This is also what I thought….like tattoos… 🤦‍♀️

Teanbiscuits33 · 22/08/2024 15:15

They’re easy to draw and people find them amusing because of their use. Vulvas are more intricate and require more work 😂 it’s just the rude connotations people think it’s funny to draw them everywhere. Also see tacky hen nights with the phallic shaped everything! It’s funny when you’re younger but it gets boring very quickly.

Blackberriesandcobwebs · 22/08/2024 15:15

Did anyone else have a brain fart and think you meant tattoed penises? Lots in the north?

I'll get my coat ...

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 22/08/2024 15:13

Haven’t read the whole thread but I voted YABU OP because not just a UK thing - it’s a worldwide thing. Boys/men have been obsessed with their genitalia since humans have been around as far as I can tell 🤣 Puppetry of the Penis anyone?, peeing in public - writing in the snow, urinal “games” etc Any excuse!

It’s not even necessarily sexual- even when they are babies as soon as the nappies off, they are often playing with it and then when older they are drawing them too, I’ve even seen grown men mindlessly doodling penises instead of making notes 🤦‍♀️ I bet there are cave paintings of just penises somewhere as well as all those ancient phallic statues.

Maybe if our genitalia was as easily accessible we’d be as obsessed as boys/men? But somehow I just can’t imagine it🤣

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:12

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BlueEyedLeucy · 22/08/2024 15:09

It’s a classic. It’s been etched all over the place since humans have been scribbling on things, even churches have their fair share as shown above.

CascaChan · 22/08/2024 15:08

rumred · 22/08/2024 14:30

It's everywhere and I hate it. I had planned to go and draw vulvas as a counter measure but lost my bottle.

To me it signifies men saying we rule, this is our territory.

With respect you are overthinking this. It’s just a tradition of dick jokes. Mild obscenity makes people laugh. It was tradition in my secondary school to draw cocks on the characters in the French textbooks.

WiddlinDiddlin · 22/08/2024 15:06

... the truth is, the cock and balls is a classic.

Garlicfest · 22/08/2024 15:00

Incidentally, mediaeval churches ALL have carvings of penises and/or vulvas! All over Europe. They would originally have been brightly painted.

Mediaeval pilgrims carried talismans showing flying dicks and sometimes vulvas.

To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
To wonder why penis graffiti is so common in the UK?
DancefloorAcrobatics · 22/08/2024 15:00

Well, some people ( immature boys, girls teenagers... ?) think the dangly bits are cool. They are expressing this in art for everyone to see.

wetback · 22/08/2024 15:00

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NeverDropYourMooncup · 22/08/2024 14:58

MigGril · 22/08/2024 14:35

Working in a high school is the worst, you just become so immune to it. Although my colleague keeps saying they should really learn how to draw them properly. Or things like if theirs looks like that they should really see a doctor 🤔

I had an absolutely serious conversation with a colleague about how I didn't think she needed to be quite as concerned as she was (but to obviously still CPOMS it) when a 14 year old's art book included a lot of penis drawings, as they were so wrong in parts, he'd clearly never seen one that didn't belong to him, not even on a sculpture by Michelangelo.

I've also loudly critiqued drawings of breasts whilst the clown drawing tits with his mates when they should have been listening to the plenary artist dissolved into a puddle of excruciating embarrassment and recommended that if the giant phallus on the back of the door was in any way a self-portrait, the artist had better get himself to the GP because he appears to have either phimosis or an exceptionally short frenulum.

But I went to a mixed school, so I'd seen so many on desks, drawing boards, blackboard and pretty much every surface by the age of 13 that I rarely noticed them beyond 'something else that needs to be cleaned off that surface'.

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