This article explores the practice of a distinct ‘gaze’ present in creative urban youth subcultures. We focus on sticker artists in St. Petersburg and graffiti writers in Helsinki while exploring how this subcultural gaze is formed and enacted among subcultural youth in different socio-political contexts. The idea of this article emerged, when we noticed that we have through our case studies learned different subcultural ways of looking at ‘spots’ in urban space. Spots can be understood as distinct subcultural places in the city space, that reveal communication and control of unauthorised youth practices. We use examples from the respective ethnographic fieldworks and complement them with photographs taken from spots in the field. Drawing from our fieldwork in these two cities, we further illustrate how youth within these subcultures reinterpret and visualize urban spaces through their unique subcultural lens. Both recognition and control in the city space serve as dynamic forces shaping this gaze in a creative interplay in urban environments.