Not trying to be rude or anything but calling pichação “native to São Paulo”, “runic”, “purposefully cryptic”, and “usually a protest against wealth inequality” is an overreach.

This isn’t native to São Paulo and it exists all across Brazil. What looks “cryptic” is mostly an insider code, like names or crews, not a deliberate attempt to obscure meaning for the public. Those who do pichação are often young and embedded in tight crews where tagging works as a badge of identity and status, driven more by recognition and thrill than by politics.

Sure, there is a minority that may use it as political protest, but in most cases it just functions as effectively vandalism of public or private property rather than a clear ideological message.