Whereas dogs mark their territory by lifting a leg, some people do the same — only with spray paint, "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported. While graffiti tags, unique to the artist, are a common sight on derelict buildings, walls, electrical junction boxes etc., they can also be seen on residences which have been renovated and are very much lived in.

The fashionable Kalamaja district just west of central Tallinn is one neighborhood where the issue is common.

"On both sides of the street we have façades, and across the whole length of the façade there were about 10 tags. The residents were worried that the house looked bad, but new ones kept appearing, so at one point we decided that enough was enough," said Kalamaja resident Liisi Ree.

After an unsuccessful attempt at cleaning the inscriptions off themselves, the housing association hired the services of a cleaning company, though these are not cheap: Offers the house received ranged between €500 and €1,000. In the end, the housing association chose the cheapest option, but so far the building has stayed clean and free of tags.

Ree said she has nothing against street art in and of itself, but says it doesn't belong on historical buildings, meaning there's a difference between art and "art." While there are five public graffiti walls in Tallinn where artists can spray to their heart's content, Ree said there should be more such facilities, so young people could express themselves somewhere other than on someone else's wall.

"Of course tagging is a topic of its own. For example, if there were a small work by [street artist Edward] von Lõngus here, then I think people wouldn't be as angry. It all depends on the context," Ree said on.

The City of Tallinn itself is also struggling with tagging, as graffiti has been increasing year after year, and close to €50,000 is spent per year on wall cleaning.

"We remove it constantly, but that is essentially like preparing a new canvas for the next artists — in the morning we clean it, and by evening it's back again," Erkki Vaheoja, head of a department at the Tallinn Municipal Engineering Services, told "Aktuaalne kaamera." The problem is worse in less-frequented areas, such as pedestrian tunnels, where taggers can work undisturbed. According to Vaheoja, tagging is an act of vandalism, and so should be reported to the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA).

"You can also notify the municipal police, but they usually inform the building owner that a vandalism act has occurred and the building needs to be cleaned," Vaheoja added.

One apartment association in central Tallinn said it has had to wash its walls six times in the space of two months, despite having security cameras. Ironically, they even got an angry letter from the City of Tallinn municipal police (Mupo) inquiring why they couldn't keep their building clean.

"It's hard for me to give any good answer to that," Vaheoja said in response to whether this was the right line to take.

Steven Pärtelpoeg is one person for whom cleaning graffiti provides steady work. He said he mostly gets call outs to jobs in Tallinn.

It is in fact possible to protect buildings from graffiti, and sometimes that works out cheaper in the long run than repeatedly washing off the scribbles.

"There is a water-based coating which I apply, then wash it clean, and afterward spray on a high-pressure protective layer. If someone later were to come to scribble on it, the paint would adhere, but can be washed off with just hot water in a few seconds. For plaster surfaces I especially recommend this, as if you remove graffiti from plaster, some trace always remains," Pärtelpoeg explained.

Street artist Vahur Agar said tagging is a form of art.

"When you start to notice that a name or symbol is spreading everywhere, with similar lines, which evolves over time, and you find a certain name or thing that you see all over the streets — and you can see that it develops, changes, and varies in combinations, whether words, letters, or characters remain the same — then I would classify that as art or a message," Agar said.

These tags may refer to an artist, a group, or be abbreviations of an in-group message, not obvious to the general public.

"Graffiti artists send messages to each other, though street artists — those who make visual works — send messages to the public, to ordinary people," Agar explained.

And who, then, are Wazek, Jänes, Aken, Pasr, Stan or Stah, all names which have been commonly seen as tags. Even Agar isn't sure whether it's Stah or Stan, though they've participated in graffiti festivals they have organized. In this world, anonymity is vital — just as supposedly no one knows for sure who British artist Banksy is, even after decades of activity and despite their works having been sold at expensive art auctions.

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