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“You can’t beat a cock and balls as graffiti”

Psychotherapist Philippa Perry explains why the depiction of a penis and testicles  is still so often the vandal’s symbol of choice:

Speed is one simple answer, the quickly drawn shape often looking more like a cartoon of a dog’s bone than a realistic rendition of male genitalia, but it is easy to draw and easy to recognise. It’s ultimately a male form of rebellion, too – I cannot find any example of female graffitists who have used it, probably because you need a certain amount of testosterone to want to mark territory with symbolic pork sword weaponry.

Photographs: The Paolo da San Leocadio fresco, with a 17th-century workman’s embellishment, left. Photograph: J Cuellar/El Mundo; The Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex, as it temporarily appeared in 2010. Photograph: M & Y Agency Ltd / Rex Features