I suppose more and more, people are starting to see graffiti as a form of art. Now there are still many who would beg to differ - and they'd point to the destructive scribblings that we see on our bus shelters and our public buildings. These often take the form of tags which are fancy, scribble-like versions of someone's name or nick-name. Tags generally have no aesthetic appeal and they are the scourge of the high street shopkeeper in many a town. I can certainly see where the shopkeepers and property owners are coming from. But the fact is, graffiti has been around for a very long time indeed. People left their mark on cave walls back in prehistoric times and it's been found too on ancient monuments in Egypt and Rome. But New York style graffiti - which is really the forerunner of a lot of the graffiti that's getting done now - New York graffiti took off in the late 1960s. That's when the advent of the spraycan allowed the humble tag to evolve into more complex styles. In the mid to late 70s, subway trains became the new forum for graffiti artists to display their skills. For many young people it became a medium to express their disillusionment with a system from which they felt excluded. Now of course, the art establishment embraces graffiti artists and some of these artists have actually taken on cult status.