Leave our tube stickers alone!

I've had countless texts and emails this week asking if I've had anything to do with the mysterious stickers popping up all over the London Underground.

Some examples:

"No eye contact. Penalty £200."

"We apologise for any incontinence caused during these engineering works."

"Peak hours may necessitate you let other people sit on your lap."

At first glance, they may seem like the normal health and safety messages but if you read them properly, they are guaranteed to make you smile.

I have several thoughts about this.

Firstly, to the killjoys who claim this is 'graffiti' and that they are expensive to remove I say leave them. If we can have a giant bronze dog turd classed as art in the Turner Prize, then these certainly qualify as urban art.
Whoever is making these stickers is doing a pretty good job of getting them to blend in and look authentic. They hardly look like the normal 'woz ere' graffiti scrawlings across the windows and doors.

Secondly, we all know etiquette on the tube is poor. These can act as lighthearted etiquette reminders.

Thirdly, it's about time people had fun on their daily commute. Price rises, squashed carriages and constant disruptions to journeys give us enough to frown about. Let these stickers turn those frowns upside down.

So, to whoever is 'going underground' in guerilla stickerfare, keep doing it. It's making us smile, and on the Tube that's a rare thing.

If anyone has new examples - please send them in. I'll re-post the best ones.

Laura King is the author of The Little Book of Tube Etiquette, published by Gibson Publishing and available at Waterstones, WH Smith and most online retailers.
www.gibsonpublishing.co.uk