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Check for these hidden graffiti messages next time you check into a hotel

Artist David Bussell has been leaving funny messages for hotel residents all over the world for the past seven years…

THE NEXT TIME you enter a hotel room, peek at the back of a mirror, under a desk drawer, or inside a bible, and you may find a hilarious note saying something like “This hotel wasn’t half bad. It was all the way bad.”

For the past seven years, British comedian and graffiti artist David Bussell has been surreptitiously leaving irreverent notes in hotel rooms around the world.

Bussell said that he started doodling because a hotel he was staying in didn’t have a working TV, and it has since turned into somewhat of a tradition.

“I tend to just write whatever seems funny in the moment but certain objects have been known to inspire ideas: bathroom fittings, kitchen appliances, Gideon’s bibles,” Bussell said. “Mostly I just write in places that will only be searched out by the extremely curious though – nosey people like me.”

He said that he hasn’t seen any backlash from hotel owners yet—but jokes that he’ll be checking into hotels using his wife’s name from here on out.

All images courtesy of David Bussell.

Bussell’s very candid thoughts on a hotel in Oxford, England.

Presumably, this washed off easily from tiles in a hotel bathroom in Denver, Colorado.

An invitation to a treasure hunt written on the back of a painting in a hotel room in Budardalur, Iceland.

He had to climb up to a high ledge in the bathroom in Budir, Iceland to scribble this.

Bussell didn’t actually steal this painting (we think) in a hotel in Bexhill-on-Sea, England.

This slightly eerie message was written on the back of a painting frame in Havana, Cuba.

An almost existential note written in Co Monaghan.

Wait, which is which? Scrawled on mini alcohol bottles in a hotel in Bruges, Belgium.

- Jennifer Polland

13 bits of bathroom graffiti you’ll wish you’d thought of>

15 perfect alterations to once-boring signs>

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:07 PM

    “An almost existential note written in Monaghan, Northern Ireland.”

    Someone failed geography.

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    Mute ieoinu
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:13 PM

    Well it’s not in the south now is it!

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    Mute Jayme Mc Goldrick
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:19 PM

    Thanks a disgraceful mistake on the part of the journal!

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    Mute Vanessa Sterry
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:22 PM

    ieoinu I think you need to go back to school or alternatively you can click here and hide your blushes
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaghan

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    Mute Dublinguy2013
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:12 PM

    Not really a funny comedian going by what he wrote.

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    Mute trevor power
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:16 PM

    Oh I wasn’t aware that I’m from Northern Ireland? I’ve gotten my geography wrong.

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    Lucy
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    Mute Lucy
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:34 PM

    If i stay in a hotel the last thing I will want to do is look behind toilets or in cisterns for hidden messages that aren’t even funny.

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    Mute James Mc Kenna
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:15 PM

    Monaghan is NOT in northern ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    Mute Kieran Monaghan
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:14 PM

    Monaghan said NO!!!

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:23 PM

    It is in Northern Ireland . It’s just not part of the six counties currently part of the United Kingdom. It’s still Northern Ireland . We are not “the south” either we are The Republic of Ireland. The south of Ireland is a lovely bunch of counties under the middle of Ireland. We as a country have a north south east and west . I am not buying into the English medias terminology in relation to Ireland. So yes Monaghan is in the northern part of the Irish republic .

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    Mute Paul M. Barrett
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:26 PM

    It’s in Ulster but not NI, have a look at a map.

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    Mute trevor power
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:32 PM

    Being padantic.

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    Mute trevor power
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:32 PM

    Shes*

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    Mute Seán Ó Briain
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:40 PM

    If you want to be a pedant, Catherine – I’ll humour you. We are not the “Republic of Ireland”. That is the name of our national football team. I don’t know why this keeps cropping up. It demonstrates a complete lack of knowledge on the most basics of the constitution. Read Article 4 – The name of the state is Éire, or Ireland – but never “The Republic of Ireland”. That is the description (not name) of the state.

    http://www.constitution.org/cons/ireland/constitution_ireland-en.htm

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    Mute Paul M. Barrett
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:24 PM

    It’s a copy and paste article from an international site, no Irish person would think Monaghan to be in Northern Ireland. Poor standards from the journal.

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    Mute Ciarán Murphy
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:13 PM

    What percentage of comments on this article will relate to the “Monaghan, Northern Ireland” line by this time tomorrow?

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    Mute gumbridge
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:17 PM

    Well it’s 70% at the moment, not counting this one.

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    Mute Justin Healy
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:13 PM

    Would be funny… If he was funny.

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    Mute Louise Keogh
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:31 PM

    This wasn’t funny

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    Mute Paul M. Barrett
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:20 PM

    What a tool.

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    Mute Spud Jones
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:51 PM

    So like if I don’t like stuff and I scribble crap all over it, that’s like cool now?! Man I got some defacing to do.

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    Mute Spud Jones
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:53 PM

    The north of the island is rely in for it!

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    Mute Morticia
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    Aug 18th 2013, 6:15 PM

    Very witty but too clever for the average journal reader ;-)

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    Mute David Mc Skane
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    Aug 18th 2013, 6:21 PM

    Whoa !!!! Easy there Sheldon Cooper.

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    Lucy
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    Mute Lucy
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    Aug 18th 2013, 6:37 PM

    Bazinga!

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    Mute Michael G O'Reilly
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    Aug 18th 2013, 7:32 PM

    Gomez agrees with you !

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    Mute Gerard Daly
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    Aug 18th 2013, 7:19 PM

    Stayed in a hotel in Crete years ago somebody had written in the bedside locker welcome to hell how right they were

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    Mute Dec Rowe
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    Aug 19th 2013, 1:04 AM

    So… Where’s Monaghan?

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    Mute Dessie Edmunds
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    Aug 18th 2013, 5:38 PM

    Cuba one is funny.

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    Mute eric grixy
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    Aug 19th 2013, 12:40 AM

    “Eat shit and die ” ; that’s what he should have written on the toilet roll !

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    Mute Patch Quinn
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    Aug 18th 2013, 11:08 PM

    Tiolet paper one would be funny if it stuck to someones bum haha

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