This paper discusses graffiti as a social phenomena and an art form; “graffiti” is the plural noun form of the word “graffito” which means to scratch, to scribble or to write.
The paper details the history of graffiti, the taggers (people who make graffiti), the law, the culture, the music, the style, the types and the international appeal. The paper concludes that most graffiti is created from a person’s unique ideas on what looks good to them; therefore, graffiti has to be considered an art form regardless if it is showcased in a museum or on the streets.
Wanting to be popular among fellow taggers and the rest of their community, taggers had to find ways to become more noticeable than their competitors through the 70’s did. They did this by changing their writing style from standard lettering to more artistic forms of lettering, such as bubble and calligraphy, and by making their tags larger. Making the tags larger was a great task at first because the standard nozzle width of a spray can is narrow. Therefore, taggers began swapping caps from other aerosol products in order to get larger nozzle width.