Today, when the artist known as Ski pulls out a spray can, it's along a popular bike path in broad daylight.
It hasn't always been this way. Gone are the days of nicking paint from Kmart and hiding in the shadows at night.
While vandalism remains a blight in many areas, graffiti artists now have an array of legal walls to use as their canvas and even specialised paint shops to choose from.
According to the ACT government, Canberra has 31 legal spaces for graffiti artists - believed to be the most in the country.
And while the form may not appeal to everyone, Ski, who says graffiti art "changed my life", wants people to imagine how things might be without it.
"Most of us come from low socio-economic homes and housing commission," Ski says. "Think of what we could have been up to compared to what we were actually getting up to."
Ski will be one of more than 80 graffiti artists in the city this weekend for the second Killing of Canberra, an event which takes its name from the compliment that someone is "killing it".
The graffiti "jam" is happening at Woden drains, which at 520m is said to be the southern hemisphere's longest stretch of legal graffiti wall.
Ski now works in suicide prevention, providing support to people fighting addiction to alcohol and other drugs. He tries to engage young people through break-dancing and the arts.
"There's plenty of opportunities to get up to no good," he says. But in an artistic community, lives can be redirected.
"It's somewhere for the kids to go."
The City and Environment Directorate received 3864 complaints about graffiti in the 2025-26 financial year. It uses a volunteer graffiti removal team.
Canberra artist Raph understands many people don't appreciate graffiti art of any type, but particularly the "tagging" of an artist's name they see on public walls.
"[But] for some of the best mural artists in the world, that's how they learn," he says. "You can't have the really nice murals without having the lettering."
Raph asks sceptics of the form to think of celebrated UK guerilla artist Banksy when they walk by Canberra's highly graffitied areas.
"Someone who's quite conservative about what art is will even like Banksy," Raph says. "What people don't know is Banksy did graffiti lettering."
This week, dog walkers and other passersby stopped to admire the work of Geoff Filmer, as he painted a pair of gang-gang cockatoos on the side of Canberra Tennis Centre in Lyneham.
His work can be found along the Australian Silo Art trail, and on Floriade's iconic Stage 88.
But even he got his experience on graffiti walls.
"A lot of my skill base has come from doing that," he says. "You just turn up to a legal wall and find a space."
The government says its legal graffiti walls - and organised events such as this weekend's - have reduced the amount of vandalism in Canberra.
Mr Filmer said organised street art was a "fantastic thing for Canberra".
"It means it doesn't flow onto the unwanted locations so much ... whereas Melbourne is full of everybody wanting to put stuff up and it's illegal and sort of angsty."
Killing of Canberra organiser Marilyn Tuna said artists from around the country were travelling to Canberra, and she hoped the event would combat some stereotypes.
"None of us are young," she said, describing last year's exhibition as a wholesome day.
"I had to give out Nurofen and Panadol because everyone had sore lower backs."
