In 2009, Brazil legalized street art – all the artist needs is permission from the property owner. Each artist has their own language, but street art in Rio appears to be particularly influenced by its seaside surroundings, as opposed to street art in São Paulo, which draws more inspiration from its urban cityscape. Street art is called “grafite” (pronounced grah-fee-tchee) in Rio – what we call graffiti in terms of tagging and lettering buildings in the US is referred to as “pichação” (pronounced pee-shah-sow).