The history of graffiti goes back to ancient times. The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s. Darryl McCray ('Cornbread') is widely regarded as the father of modern day graffiti. The story tells that Cornbread felt in love with a girl named Cynthia Custuss and started to write Cornbread Loves Cynthia to get her attention. He enjoyed it so much that he continued to tag Philadelphia with his name. http://journeyforevermag.com/typesofgraffiti 

Graffiti and street art emerged in urban art around the early 1970‘s, mostly in large cities, such as New York. It started off as humble vandalism, but quickly progressed into a unique form of art that requires huge technical skill. It is probably most well known for the tags we see all around cities and towns. When graffiti first emerged, taggers treated tagging as a competition over whose name could be seen around the city the most frequently. Many taggers would use permanent markers on subway trains at first, and moved to spray paint as their styles became more complex.This evolution in tagging led to the “Style Wars” of the 1970’s, which is where the crafted, beautiful graffiti we know today began to emerge. https://www.befunky.com/learn/the-evolution-of-graffiti-and-urban-art/#:~:text=Many%20taggers%20would%20use%20permanent,know%20today%20began%20to%20emerge.