The mantas are in full swing at Manta Point in the Raja Ampat, with up to 75 mantas in an area the size of 2 football fields.
To add to the beauty of this incredible underwater event, we were graced by the presence of a certain ‘Jon’, a live-aboard guest or perhaps a dive-guide? Only Jon would know.
Jon was armed to the teeth with a sharp object, and carved out his all-important name on a prominent coral head, to make sure that mantas would never forget that they met Mr. Jon.
Jon, please join us next time, so that we can take a picture of you, and prove to the world that real idiots do exist. It would be really nice if you let us carve the word ’IDIOT’ on your forehead. Believe me, brother you will feel no pain, all you have up there is bone!
Here is a screenshot taken from a video of the artwork!

Really no words for that. Unreal. Just do not know how someone carves their name into coral....

yep, have seen that before....

truly a sad axxhole.

please upload photo of the hole he ended up in...

The words Keel and Haul come to mind for some reason. Wonder if Jon was on a liveaboard . . .

Yep, saw something like that in Bunaken. Then beside it a group was sitting on the corals and grabbing the huge vase sponges, the very ones carved into. Disgusting to say the least.

Todd

Someone did that at our Mandarinfish dive here in Lembeh too. CAnt remember the name over here, will get the staff to check next time they are out.

I've seen it done on a turtle shell before too.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I hope we get a picture of the offender in action and create a "Most Wanted" poster.

Looking at the screenshot, it looks like the idiot is a repeat offender. Looks like the initials were carved before on the right side and looks older. Same initials appearing in other areas?

There must be witnesses able to confirm sightings of a fresh carving, if not identify suspicious behavior.

Have we asked help from the dive operations and their divemasters in the area where these carvings appear?

Bo
(CSI fan)

Man, that is just sick! Such a shame ...

And for the rest of us named "Jon", everyone will wonder if we're the #$%@head who did it.

Bummer.

This is as frustrating to me as it is to everyone else commenting on this narcissistic act, but is it the best idea to post JON's name on the front page of Wetpixel?????? This is giving him the attention he so badly craves....

The entire vandalism/graffiti movement began in New York City in 1972 when a delivery boy began scrawling his nom-de-plume "TAKI 183" on walls through out the city.....the New York Times published a picture of the graffiti tag and low-and-behold a graffiti epidemic broke-out in NYC with thousands of copy cats seeking similar "fame" and media recognition and destroying millions of $$$s in public and private property. In this age of instant cyberspace media, the last thing we need is to give other boneheads/narcissists any ideas..."Hey, if I scratch my name on other coral heads/turtle shells I can become a dive outlaw and be covered by Wetpixel, Skin Diver, and Undercurrent".

I have a huge suspicion that if anyone bumps into a 'Jon' on a dive boat it will be instantly apparent if he is the coral carver or not. He is bound to be very special in very unfortunate ways.



The history of graffiti could be argued all the way back to cavemen, if not at least the ancient civilizations, but in it's modern form and especially in tagging or writing with 'names' has most often been associated (and i even learnt this in school) to World War 2. I believe during WW2 the Americans started writing 'Kilroy was here' images where they went. Still got to love that Kilroy!!

Anyway, I would hope that rather than creating the fame this Jon is craving we are actually showing the world and him through our modern world communication system of the internet that it is looked down upon to carve your name into a living animal. True graffiti is not about killing animals so much as it is buildings and domiciles for art or political reasons. Infact modern grafitii artists such as Banksy would probably be disgusted by this form of art as would the bboys of the hip hop world who help keep the art alive.

I dare the person to own up to his act!

I doubt anyone that would do something like that would be a Wetpixel member.
Better question; did he make it off the boat.....
John

Hiya Leon & Claudia,

I'm afraid Jon wasn't the only moron to leave his mark at your lovely Manta Point - this is from there too, snapped last month...

Kapcia and Waisal (?) seem to have wanted our undying admiration too.

Seriously, WTF are these people thinking...

But but but!!! its just a rock!!!

Sheesh.. people are dumb

I hasten to add Claudia that my name is spelled JOHN with an H.



XXX

Unfortunately this sort of defacing is something we all see everywhere. Books/movies have romanticized the X heart Y cupid arrow etching on a tree/rock etc that it's acceptable (I've seen this in Uluru/Kata Tjuta, Yellowstone, Plitvicka etc, pretty much anywhere tourists go.
It's a not uncommon trait for human beings to note their existence, so they don't feel insignificant in the greater scheme of things.

When you wrote that, I just could not help but think of this

"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Percy Bysshe Shelley

It really is a disgrace, leaves me at a serious loss for words.
Steve