It’s on stop signs, mailboxes and ATMs. It’s on walls, stairwells and lampposts. Odds are you’ve seen it on your way to class or walked by it and didn’t even notice.

It’s the word “duck” written in neat cursive. While some call it graffiti and others call it art, its presence — plastered on hundreds of obscure locations on campus and throughout Ann Arbor — is difficult to ignore.

Some students have picked up on the trend and have posted inquiries about the artist on blogs. Others, like University alum Preston Hart, have taken pictures documenting the duck tag spots.

Hart first noticed the tags on his way to class about a year ago.

“From then on, wherever I went I’ve been kind of on the lookout for others,” Hart said.

Hart began taking pictures and posting them on his Flickr account, which has 89 images of the graffiti in different places around campus. Hart estimates he has seen at least 50 more.

“I think that the average person doesn’t really notice it, and that’s one of the things that interests me about it because (the tags) are so ubiquitous, especially on Central Campus,” Hart said. “The average person with classes on Central Campus probably passes dozens of them unknowingly.”

Diane Brown, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman, said University police have had to deal with other graffiti sightings this summer, but said she was not aware of the “duck” tag.

Whether it's an individual or a group of people drawing the signature, if caught, Brown said the subject would be charged based on the cost of the damages.

“If they use permanent paint then it comes down to what is the dollar amount incurred to clean that up and restore that — whether it’s a building or wall or sign or window or whatever it is — (we look at) what dollar amount it would take to restore it to its original situation,” Brown said.

Brown said the subject would also be charged with a misdemeanor for destruction of property, but the charge varies based on the dollar value of the property destroyed.

But, if graffiti artists use chalk, they cannot be fined because chalk is not permanent.

“If someone drew chalk on the sidewalk then technically there’s no damage, and that’s considered freedom of speech, and the rain will wash it away,” Brown said.

Newcombe Clark, owner of Bluestone Realty Advisors and president of the Main Street Area Association, said he has no knowledge as to who is producing the duck graffiti, but said it's more important to remove the work rather than find its creator.

“What has been found is that the best deterrent to graffiti isn’t doing all the detective work finding out exactly who it is,” Clark said. “It’s just taking care of the graffiti as soon as possible so that other graffiti artists don’t see graffiti, because once you see graffiti you know that you can get away with it, and it kind of self propagates itself.”

In an attempt to eliminate the graffiti scrawled around Ann Arbor, the Ann Arbor City Council voted in January to enact an anti-graffiti ordinance. The ordinance requires property owners to remove graffiti from their building within seven days after notification from the city. If they don't, the city will remove the work, and owners will have to pay the city for the expense.

While the ordinance took effect in May, Clark said he hasn’t witnessed any drastic changes to the amount of graffiti in downtown Ann Arbor, adding that residents have to complain in order for the ordinance to be effective.

“The ordinance, for better or worse, is complaint-based, so there is no one running around basically issuing tickets to anybody unless someone complains,” he said.

Clark said he hopes to organize a “graffiti walk” with the Main Street Association in the near future.