Graffiti it is a rapidly developing art form whose value is highly contested and reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction. Both "graffiti" and its occasional singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word "graffiato" ("scratched"). "Graffiti" is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In ancient times
Roman graffiti A response to this translates to: Word squares (magic square) and riddles are also common forms of the culture of graffiti. These show a level of mental agility and flexibility of language. Examples of handwritten alphabets are common graffiti in Pompeii and could be evidence of children practicing their alphabet. This lends to the argument that children were responsible for much of the graffiti. However, the height of the inscriptions and location may contradict this. Writing around 100 AD, Plutarch wrote of graffiti: "There is nothing written in them which is either useful or pleasing – only so-and-so 'remembers' so-and-so,