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Graffiti has become, in a way, a well-integrated part of the artistic landscape throughout the world. It can be found in every single city on the planet in some form or another, and in several art galleries on each continent. It has launched the careers of several dedicated artists which I will cover more in depth later, and it has been used by programs to help keep high risk youth out of gang related violence and crime. It has been used by top companies to put what feels like a street edge on to their product. And it has been around since the societies we feel we have inherited our legacy from, Greece and Rome. Problem is, a large chunk of this is illegal. Whenever you leave a visible mark on someone’s property, including that of the government, without their permission, it is illegal and can lead to jail, prison, or hefty fines.

Now, for my purposes here, Graffiti refers to the historical paint and scratch marks I will outline later, and all forms of spray-painting, painting, stickers, wheat pasting and the like both legal and illegal with the purposes of spreading a message or putting ones name out in an artistic manner. To start, the word Graffiti originates from the Greek word “graephen” meaning “to write”. Nothing too illegal there. The oldest defacement-art defined as Graffiti can be found in the ancient world in Greece and Rome, the city of Pompeii, once it was uncovered from several layers of volcanic ash, was found to have graffiti scribbled on nearly every surface, as did most Roman building in this time period.

The writing on the walls also extends to Islamic architecture, because in original Islamic teachings it was illegal to depict humans in art and they therefor adorned their buildings in floral patterns and writing. This is not typically defined as Graffiti because there are no property rights infringed, but it does fall under my definition because of its artistic writing on the walls and message.

It was common during the era that Christianity began to take over Rome for early Christians to deface Roman statues with breaking, painting, nose removal, and scratching crosses. These pieces are nowadays worth more than they would have been originally because they have more history to them. This same process happened after the reigns of less supported Egyptian rulers as well.

When the Berlin wall was tore down multiple large chunks were sent to different museums and such and small chips are still sold to this day. These chips cost more when they’re adorned by what? You guessed it, Graffiti.

And don’t forget the long nosed balding cartoon character from the World war generation, no one from this time period would ever forget “Kilroy was here” and his other incarnations in other countries. His comedic existence was typically a reference to ration protests and he even showed up on the WWII memorial in Washington D.C.

Today, in Chicago, the Youth Struggling for Survival of the YSS have harnessed the graffiti skills of high risk Chicago kids to paint murals for schools and keep kids of the streets. These murals are never tagged over because they are something that these kids understand and have pride in.

Many of today’s best Graffiti artists have moved out of just the street centered art form and into massive businesses and art fields. A personal favorite artist of mine, Shepard Fairey spent years posting giant stickers of a highly stylized photo of Andre the Giant’s face over the word “OBEY” as an experiment. He know sells massive quantities of Art has a clothing brand based around this pseudo-movement and designed president Obama’s Hope campaign posters. I cannot remember the last time I saw a school presidential election that didn’t reference this man’s genius.

Commonly associated Fairey is the man that goes by the name of Banksy. He has never been unmasked, but he is the most prolific stencil artist in the world. Originating in the UK he has stenciled anti-corporate political activist-art multiple places on every continent except for maybe Antarctica. When he holds art shows his art is known to sell for upwards of 100,000 British pounds. He also got a best documentary nomination for his movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”

The founder of the infamous TATS cru, Wilfred “Bio” has branched from Graffiti to such a point that he has lectured at M.I.T. and was part of the Smithsonian’s institute’s 35^th folklore festival in Washington D.C.

London based Graffiti artist “Inkie” currently teaches art to children and Graphic Design to College students.

More examples of artistic success shows up where the likes of Graffiti artist Neckface work with skateboard companies to produce merchandise and Nike producing shoes with multiple other graffiti artists have led to Graffiti being a gateway out of a lot of poverty.

Another thing Nike has been doing with graffiti is its used of Graffiti style advertisements. Of course, Nike isn’t the only company making this kind of shift in urban areas, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and even the manufacturers of Hummer have hired graffiti artists to put up their advertisements. There is even a hotel in china, the Radisson Blu Hotel Pudong Century Park, with a “Graffiti Art” campaign in order to appear trendy to Chinese and Foreign customers.

And with all this artistic success, this commercialization and this backing from trusted corporate enterprises, what are kids supposed to think? That they’ll get fined and develop a criminal record if they start painting art on public space? That’s unlikely. Children and Teenagers are at an increasing rate picking up the Spray-paint in order to make art, and we need to harness this into a legal, productive way to improve our cities. We know what we have to do for our children and our cities, and that’s use their artistic talents to create legal public artworks for everybody. We need to help launch the careers of our future artists, and we need to stop letting these kids build criminal records trying to get their name out.

We need more programs like the YSS, and more public walls made to be painted, we need to give these kids these options to prevent urban decay and help communities.