WCCO recently covered a story on Marvin Applewhite -- a man on a mission to scrub the graffiti around Uptown, Minneapolis.

“I wanted to give Uptown a facelift and just wanted to get rid of some of negative graffiti and the trash around here,” Applewhite, who is the owner of Blueline Cleaning and Debris Removal, told WCCO. “When you walk down the block with a gang of graffiti—your ideas change about the block. It don’t feel as safe.” Together with a group of teen volunteers, Applewhite has been looking for graffiti on streets, businesses and other surfaces to scrub clean or paint over with more beautiful images.

Artdex defines graffiti as "writings or drawings on a wall as a form of visual communication, often seen as illegal since it involves marking public spaces." Graffiti takes its name from the Italian word graffio, which means "scratch." While some -- perhaps even most -- graffiti is unwelcome and unsolicited, some is quite attractive.

A new video from Youtube channel Late Night Living Room takes viewers on a tour of graffiti around Minneapolis.

"I read an article the other day about a man who fell and died while attempting to graffiti the Stone Arch Bridge," the narrator shares over shots of graffiti at the bridge. "Since reading this article I started paying closer attention to the graffiti around me as I move throughout the city." Over the next five minutes, the video and narrator take us on an educational journey of the three different types of graffiti -- tags/slaps, throws and pieces.

"Tags can commonly mean monikers as well as small characters," he explains. Slaps are written on a plain label or printed like on a sticker. Throws are between tags and pieces, usually taking more time though repeatable. Finally, a piece -- short for masterpiece -- is "the most complex and time-consuming" of the different types of graffiti, usually showing up in more remote areas (due to their illegal nature) unless they've been paid for or approved.