Graffiti

	As a form of communication, graffiti has been around for millennia, but it wasn't until the late 1970's and the wake of hip hop when graffiti, as a form of art, took its place in the modern urban culture. Graffiti art emerged from the black neighbourhoods of New York City, and was made famous by the early artists' masterpieces on NYC subway trains. These days, the modern graffiti can be found all over America and Europe, and as means of communication graffiti steps on dictators' toes everywhere by spreading political messages.
	Like many genres of art before it, graffiti has caused much controversy. Some see it as vandalism rather than a type of art, whereas others have welcomed it and consider it an essential part of the face of their city. There have been legal graffiti walls opened and many cities tolerate it to a point, but the element of danger and excitement from the risk of getting caught have remained an important part of the graffiti culture.
	Graffiti arrived in Finland in the mid-1980's, and the 90's are viewed as the golden age of Graffiti in Helsinki. Most of graffiti writers from then have settled down and only paint on legal walls at most. Nowadays the ban on graffiti is more strictly enforced and it has affected the face of Helsinki. According to a recent survey, there were ten times more graffiti in 1998 than there were in 2014. 
	The writer behind the graffiti rarely attracts fame. Because of its often criminal nature, the artist doesn't show his or her face, but rather lets the fame go to the word painted. The words written vary from abbrevations such as HGS, meaning 'Holigans', to artists' pseudonyms like 'Seen', or political messages like 'Mursi is my president'. One could say that graffiti is a form of calligraphy, since the writers pay great effort to making the letters stand out in the best way.

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