Graffiti

Graffiti has its own visual language, including simple 'tags,' large block letters, and complex 'pieces'

Every graffiti artist looks to create their own visual identity, but they often rely on common folk styles, especially when they're still developing their craft. "Tags" are little more than an artist's pseudonym, while "Wildstyle" takes an abstract approach to the signature. More complicated styles, like "blockbuster," are like informal billboards strapped to the sides of buildings and subway cars.

Graffiti's lexicon includes slang for methods and aspirations

Quickly covering an area with graffiti, often fast tags and throwies, is called "bombing," a word that's intended to evoke images of an aerial raid. "Heaven" is a double entendre: It's a very high spot, both desirable and potentially fatal.

A graffiti artist breaks down the fundamentals of the form

Graffiti is more than just tagging a name. Legendary street artist Carlos Mare, also known as Mare 139, breaks down how to paint several of the form's popular styles and motifs, from quickly drawn throwies to intricately planned masterpieces.

The theory behind public art

Proponents of public art, including graffiti, argue that its free access and visibility breaks down the elitism and financial barriers of galleries and museums, allowing people to interact or ignore the work as they see fit.

Archaeologists discovered over 11,000 examples of graffiti in ancient Pompeii

Residents drew various figures and announcements on homes, temples, and walls, much of it preserved by volcanic ash. While some were clearly intended to be artistic, scholars have noted that the ancient graffiti has more in common with social media than with the tags and murals we associate today with the art form.

'Graffiti' comes from the Italian for 'a scribbling'

The word was first used in 1851 to describe the ancient inscriptions on Pompeii's walls. "Graffiti" is the plural form of "graffito," which means "a scribbling."

Ancient Romans sometimes lobbed insults through graffiti

Graffiti was used to communicate ideas, offer advice, and, not unlike the internet, talk some trash. That was especially true with tourists, who sometimes scrawled messages on the pyramids, including one person who complained, "I can not read the hierogylphics." In response, someone replied, "Why do you care that you can not read the hieroglyphics? I do not understand your concern."

Explore a database of ancient graffiti

Take a look at thousands of pieces of graffiti from the walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii, including name tags, crude jokes, and crude drawings. The database, maintained by classical scholars, allows you to explore maps of the cities and images of the original inscriptions.

A popular tag in World War II announced 'Kilroy was here'

The graffito appeared seemingly everywhere throughout the 1940s and followed a similar pattern: A man with an oversized nose peering over a ledge, with the phrase written below it. Scholars believe it was an American form of similar tags that appeared in Australia and England, making "Kilroy" a meme long before the word had entered the lexicon.

Philadelphia's Cornbread claims to be the first modern graffiti artist

Darryl McCray began writing his nickname, "Cornbread," across his hometown of Philadelphia in the 1960s. That style was a way of posting a personalized signature across neighborhoods and would become known as "tagging." In time, that style spread to New York, where it took off among other young people.