Hiding axis text in matplotlib plots

I'm trying to plot a figure without tickmarks or numbers on either of the axes (I use axes in the traditional sense, not the matplotlib nomenclature!). An issue I have come across is where matplotlib adjusts the x(y)ticklabels by subtracting a value N, then adds N at the end of the axis.

This may be vague, but the following simplified example highlights the issue, with '6.18' being the offending value of N:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import random
prefix = 6.18

rx = [prefix+(0.001*random.random()) for i in arange(100)]
ry = [prefix+(0.001*random.random()) for i in arange(100)]
plt.plot(rx,ry,'ko')

frame1 = plt.gca()
for xlabel_i in frame1.axes.get_xticklabels():
    xlabel_i.set_visible(False)
    xlabel_i.set_fontsize(0.0)
for xlabel_i in frame1.axes.get_yticklabels():
    xlabel_i.set_fontsize(0.0)
    xlabel_i.set_visible(False)
for tick in frame1.axes.get_xticklines():
    tick.set_visible(False)
for tick in frame1.axes.get_yticklines():
    tick.set_visible(False)

plt.show()

The three things I would like to know are:

1. How to turn off this behaviour in the first place (although in most cases it is useful, it is not always!) I have looked through matplotlib.axis.XAxis and cannot find anything appropriate

2. How can I make N disappear (i.e. X.set_visible(False))

3. Is there a better way to do the above anyway? My final plot would be 4x4 subplots in a figure, if that is relevant.