Unless your hometown boasts its very own Banksy or Shepard Fairey, it’s likely the graffiti strewn around the city centre and beyond is nothing more than a series of indecipherable tags and kaleidoscopic squiggles.
Whilst it may seem like a bit of harmless fun carried out by jaded teenagers, the upshot of graffiti is much more serious, with criminal damages and eye watering clean-up bills running into the hundreds of thousands.
And it seems nowhere is safe.
Earlier this year, The Heritage Journal revealed Stonehenge was damaged during the Winter Solstice, with graffiti sprayed on the stones, people trying to light fires on them, and someone even dripping a line of oil on several of them.
So what can be done?
Learning the Trade
Although it’s tempting to don a cape in a bid to become a bona fide graffiti vigilante, patrolling your local high street attempting to capture “artists” in the act, that’s actually a job best left to the authorities.
Instead, you can do your bit by learning to become a graffiti remover.
Admittedly, there’s no university course covering the art of graffiti removal, so your best bet is to gain employment with a specialist cleaning company. From there, you can begin to get involved in banishing these unsightly blemishes from your city’s walls.
As you might expect, graffiti can come in many guises. This can be spray paint, chalk, felt-tip pens, ballpoint pens and adhesive labels, with all of these providing their own challenges when it comes to removing them.
But how is it done?
Typically, graffiti removers will use a cocktail of specialist chemicals and techniques to make sure surfaces are returned to their original states. What’s more, it helps property owners abide by the relevant legislation.
After all, according to the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, the person responsible for the surface is accountable for the cost of getting the graffiti removed, which means there’s plenty of business for those willing to get their hands dirty.
For those of you worried about its effect on the environment, you’ll be pleased to hear that there’s an eco-friendly way to banish those budding Banksy’s from the walls of your once proud town or city.
This involves using non-abrasive materials to blast away ugly graffiti and can be used on a wide variety of surfaces. All that has to be done is an assessment of the environment and whether it’s the best method for the job.
As you can see, becoming a graffiti remover involves much more than wandering around aimlessly with a wire brush and a bucket. In order to reach the top of the graffiti removal game, it takes a can-do attitude and a burning desire to rid the streets of hideous vandalism.