News / Street Art
‘De-taggers’ swing into action to restore damaged mural
They did not want to be named or photographed. They did not even want me to reveal whether they were a woman or a man.
“It’s a dangerous game what I play,” they told me, with bucket of soapy water in hand on Saturday morning.
This person is one of a group of around half a dozen or so ‘de-taggers’ who spring into action when a mural in Bedminster gets defaced.
is needed now More than ever
The tag on the mural on the side of the Tobacco reads: ‘Sat no to Satan’s jab’ – photo: Martin Booth
On Sunday, the de-tagger was in the car park of Aldi to do their best to repair the giant mural by Insane 51 which had been defaced by an anti-vaxxer.
Completed in July, Insane 51’s painting of Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night, was completed as part of Upfest’s project to paint 75 walls across Bedminster in 75 days.
It is best viewed using 3D glasses, with the goddess revealed through the blue lens but her skeleton seen through the red lens.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrgEC9of-r/
Sometime on Friday night or in the early hours of Saturday morning, part of the base of Insane 51’s piece – over Nyx’s elbow joint – had been tagged with the words, ‘Say no to Satan’s jab’.
Someone else with a spray can had subsequently drawn shapes in orange and blue paint over the words.
By 11.30am, the ‘b’ at the end of ‘jab’ had almost been removed by the de-tagger, who said that one of their aims is to remove tagging from a mural before it can be photographed and shared widely on social media.
“It would be too dangerous for us to tell you who we are,” the de-tagger said. “We just want Bedminster to look its best.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Multiple murals vandalised in Bedminster
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