Everything starts somewhere, and Aberdeen has its own history sprayed in graffiti.

Growing up in the late ’90s and early ’00s, graffiti became something I noticed more and more. From tags on bus stops to alleyways filled with scribes, it always caught my attention. As I moved into my early teens, it seemed to be everywhere — big pieces, rooftops, trackside spots, throwies and tags across the city.

This was before social media, YouTube tutorials, or smartphones, so I had no idea where to start or how to reach the writers I admired from afar. I just knew I wanted to understand how they reached those spots and made letters look so effortless. Like most people starting out, I began tagging, over-styling, and learning the hard way. I spent countless school days filling notebooks with straight letters and throwies before I even knew what they were called.

In my mid-teens, I met an older skater one night at the skatepark. We quickly bonded over graffiti, and they showed me their black book — page after page of burners and handstyles. With a few simple pointers, they sent me home to practice. Before long, we had markers and were out tagging at all hours. Through them, I heard stories about writers I looked up to, their identities kept secret but their legends growing.

Fast forward to my twenties, when I truly committed myself to graffiti and began putting everything into it. Over time, I started meeting those same writers. Many had retired, moved away, or sadly passed on. Others returned with the same energy as ever, while some took their skills to new levels through large-scale murals and refined styles.

Today, I’m fortunate to call some of these writers close friends. A few have agreed to share their experiences of Aberdeen’s graffiti scene, past and present — with some choosing to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

Over the years, many pieces have been buffed, faded, or destroyed. Photos have been lost to forgotten hard drives, broken phones, and websites that no longer exist. To help preserve the history of Aberdeen’s graffiti scene, I’ll be archiving as much as possible on a third-party platform.

If you have any old photos, please send them to kevin@granitegraff.com and help keep this history alive.