The Mystique Behind Street Artist Miss.Tic

When I lived in Paris, I could spend days wandering the streets with no set direction in mind, letting time go by and wearing my shoes thin. Discovering new pockets of the metropolis, I enjoyed having long conversations with friends and taking new routes to see where we would end up. It seemed that we took on the role of a flâneur/ flâneuse before we knew the meaning of the word! What we did know was that we wanted to uncover Paris, and what better way to do so than on foot?

In the backstreets of Montmartre, I became well acquainted with the graffiti artwork of Miss.Tic. At first, I thought these bold, spray-painted women were the work of different artists, scattered across the city, but the more often I saw the signature style of their skimpy dresses and punchy catchlines, the tiny etched “Miss.Tic” tag at the bottom, I knew there must have been a mastermind behind this street art.

Miss.Tic ( 1956-2022) was a Paris-born visual artist and poet who dedicated her life to decorating the city with messages of female empowerment through her stencil designs. Her work is characterized by her witty humor and eye-catching models, teasing society’s strict conventions and attitudes towards femininity.

Her real name was Radhia Novat. The jeu de mots of the artist’s name is both a take on the word “mystique” (mystery, power, glamour) and also borrowed from a French comic book character Miss Tick in the Journal de Micky. This cartoon duck is revealed to be “one of the most powerful witches in the world” — “[…] if not the most dangerous!” Written without the “k,” Miss.Tic’s name is surprising and punchier, much like that of her work.

In the early 1980s, Miss.Tic spent time in California dabbling in the punk scene of San Francisco and Los Angeles. I believe that this American punk influence made her work as transgressive as it is today, unafraid to cause provocation from the quiet and cobbled lanes of Montmartre.

The artist continued to experiment with her stencils around Paris, working widely in the 13ème arrondissement, until a crackdown on graffiti in 1997 led to her brief arrest for a piece of wall art she painted in the Marais. The taboo surrounding street art meant that for a long time, Miss.Tic was not given the credit that she deserved.

Spotting Miss.Tic works across the city

With dark hair, killer outfits and badass attitudes, these spray-painted women appear next to crafty messages such as “Power does not protect, it protects itself,” “From my mischief, I make paintings,” and “To live is a bomb” (my translations). She provides a commentary on and challenges society, art, and notions of femininity.

These pithy statements make you think and reflect for a moment. You might find yourself asking: what does this mean? I think my favorite lines are those that are the simplest. “Local agitator,” showing a woman lifting her dress to bring some disorder to the ordinary. Because why not? Miss.Tic is a rebel, with an art for empowerment.

What Miss.Tic’s work means today

Miss.Tic’s art manages to celebrate the female cause, socially, as well as in a male-dominated industry. With Paris as her canvas, Miss.Tic made women feel great about who they are, and what they can be in the 21st century.

Collaborations with fashion brands such as Longchamp, Kenzo and Louis Vuitton, exhibitions at London’s V&A Museum, and even designing a series of postage stamps for International Women’s Day in March 2011 meant that Miss.Tic made her mark, from the streets to the fashion houses of Paris.

Original, urban and feminist: Miss.Tic once had to fight for her place in the art world,  and now her exhibited art sells for thousands. Even after her death, her work- often carefully protected on the city’s walls by local boutiques and restaurants- is appreciated by even more spectators every day.