The Purest Form of Art

illustration by Emma Baynes

“I feel if I died right now, nothing would be interrupted, no one would skip a beat.” 

“Maybe I’m just meant to be lonely.”

“Old enough to understand.”

None of us are strangers to verbal diarrhea on public bathroom stalls. These are three of the many responses I received from the anonymous online survey I conducted to mimic a public washroom stall to collect data for this article. Whether you encounter illustrations, words of encouragement, or poetic prose inciting hatred or inviting love, someone deliberately chose the bathroom stall as their battlefield and the pen as their weapon. They picked anonymity over credit for the words they chose to share. This is what makes bathroom graffiti special, the unique vulnerable space in which it places people and encourages them to express their vulnerability through their words and out their fingertips. The artistic yet deviant act of writing on walls of public restrooms has been given its own name: latrinalia.

Latrinalia is a linguistic landscape where people hidden by their anonymity can express ideas beyond the scope of what they feel is deemed normal within social boundaries. It also offers a contrast to the bathroom's cultural role and the unspoken traditional rules: keep to yourself, make minimal eye contact, and don’t talk unless necessary. These contribute to a tense environment that can trigger a shift in focus from what typically happens behind closed stall doors. Some may find that to relieve the constraints of the washrooms' tense social norms, they stray and mark the walls with their thoughts. A washroom is a momentary sanctuary; therefore, someone’s most vulnerable thoughts may bubble to the surface, making it not feel out of place to ink the walls. The stalls present themselves as message boards of self-expression where the author is as anonymous as the audience it intends to reach. In one of the few places that dirt may be displayed or discussed, by tagging the walls you are creating a different sense of what it means for things to be dirty. You are artistically dirtying the walls with thoughts. And who doesn’t like to get a bit dirty every once in a while?

Often when someone writes out their vulnerable thoughts it may simply be because they are unwilling to speak the words out loud and without the veneer of anonymity. In society, we reject and are shamed of filth, disposing of many of our bodily wastes in washrooms. Therefore, if someone perceives their thoughts and feelings as dirty (in the sense that they are too ashamed of them to speak them out loud) they may turn to the restrooms to dispose of the filth that stains their minds by writing them on the walls. Accompanied with the already dirty connotation of washrooms, deviancy, and one’s unspoken thoughts, people will anonymously smear their verbal dirt on bathroom walls, as there is no better a place to dispose of waste.

At times to anyone but the writer, these thoughts turned into this unique form of art are worthy to be read. It’s very rare that someone would encounter writing on a bathroom wall and not read it. And in some cases, people may respond to it, creating a visual conversation where no one is interrupted. There is a sense of community within the four walls of the restrooms that have become a breeding ground for latrinalia. There is a beauty in the comfortability of safe self-expression that people find when surrounded by the nameless words of other no matter how meaningful or meaningless. Whether you’re inspired by the quotes themselves or to write your own thoughts alongside the literary ghosts left behind by others, there develops a sense of connection. Even if the quotes on the walls are written to a specific person without the intent of it ever reaching them, the audience can still relate. For example, these are some of the submissions I received: “I'm scared of loving anyone else but you,” “instead of missing the days when I was in your arms, I look forward to the nights where I can fall asleep without tears in my eyes,” and “FUCK YOU TREVOR.” Despite the quotes being directed by the author to someone specific, many people are still able to relate and apply them to their own lives because of the anonymity of the writer and viewer. This is the beauty of latrinalia, the ability to connect through vulnerability in a space where a connection is typically scarce and bizarre.

As writing on public bathroom walls decreases and virgin walls increase, this breed of art is becoming harder and harder to find. Whether that’s contributed to the increase of online comment sections being the new form of anonymous commentary or a decrease in the appeal of vandalizing public spaces or because of the chemical warfare latrinalia now faces from janitors, it is still less common to frequently come across it. Therefore, the next time you stumble upon latrinalia, maybe take a second to think about what it may mean, simply because it was written for you and the others like you to see it. The ink on the wall could be a mindless thought like “be a sweety and wipe the seaty” or an intimate message like “our youth is in the present.” No matter the message, it was meant for you and every other person who uses the stall you’re in. I will leave you with the best latrinalia quote I came across online that sums up the art form of bathroom graffiti brilliantly: “since writing on toilet walls is done neither for critical acclaim, nor financial rewards, it is the purest form of art.”