The magnificent birth of graffiti was in New York City during the late 1960’s, even though the act of writing on walls dates back to the Romans and other ancient civilizations. Graffiti became appealing because of the thought of the notoriety that came along with it. Subway trains became the main messenger for the artist because they would travel all over the city where people would be able to see their tags. Even though the train system would promote their names they also had to “get up”. “Getting up” was basically writing your name in as many places all over the city as possible. The more tags that you had the more popularity writers gained. Soon subway trains were covered in tags, and to become distinguished from other tags the writers began to add their own flair to their tags, that’s when style and size became more important. The bigger and the most finessed pieces became more acknowledged. Soon with so much style and color the graffiti culture was in full bloom. The Golden Age of graffiti was in the 1970’s where trains were covered from head to toe in vibrant colors and exquisite styles., beautiful to the eyes of artist but a complete outrageous problem for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Not only was the Golden Age of Graffiti happening in New York City but also it was during “ the Vietnam War before [New York City] barely escaped bankruptcy and before the Internet” (Vergara, 2013). The city was demolished and the “Bronx was burning” (Vergara, 2013) according to photographer Camilo José Vergara. He described graffiti as “large murals painted on the side of burnt-out shells encouraging blacks and Latinos to break the chains of oppression, to be born again, to be free” (Vergara, 2013). Being surrounded by such a catastrophic view of New York City the brilliant colors and hypnotizing styles of graffiti gave the city a feeling of reconstruction and life. It also gave graffiti artist the satisfactory feeling of being an individual and being alive (Werwath, 2006).