NOTAGING

Walking around, particularly in the more remote areas around Delta, like over the Alex Fraser Bridge, on Annacis Island, and under various overpasses, I have noticed a stenciled, well, I'm not quite sure what it is.  A motto?  Directions?  Policy?  A social commentary?

This is a stenciled message, painted, for the most part on cement surfaces, which reads, "NOTAGING."

Now, initially, one might look at this and think that it is an injunction, a direction to taggers, not to put their messages in this place.  One might think that it reads, "no tagging."

But that doesn't make an awful lot of sense.  The tagger community is not known for its adherence to rules.  They are not likely to pay attention to instructions not to deface property by painting their messages on these walls.  They are much more likely to take it as a challenge, and to paint these walls anyways, just because somebody told them not to.  And then there's the spelling.  Tagging has two G's.  The painted motto has only one.  Would it be likely that the city crews, intending to prevent people from tagging, would make a spelling mistake?

And then there's the lack of a space.  The message that's painted doesn't have any indications of a word break.  It might just as well spell "not aging."  (That would make more sense in terms of the spelling, as well.  Although it wouldn't make much sense in any other way.)

So, is this, in fact, the work of yet another tagger, intending to promote just the sorts of speculation that I have been indulging in?