Sharpie is great to use at home, the office and school but when it gets into clothes and carpets, it makes a mess. Find out how you can remove the stain. see the original article: http://www.theofficesuppliessupermarket.com/articles/How-to-remove-sharpie-pen

1. How to remove Sharpie pen?

2. In recent posts, we’ve looked at the history of Sharpies. We’ve
considered the many different uses of a Sharpie. Some ways it
can also be used, which weren’t mentioned in the previous
article, but which have been highlighted to me by my lovely 5
year old, is to “decorate” the hard wood floor, draw on the
leather sofa and create some impromptu tattoos on your big
sister’s arm! I love my kids. No really, I do. How many days
till they go back to school …??

3. So, Sharpie’s are great. They have numerous
uses and what makes them so great is that
they don’t come off. They are permanent.
Brilliant if you’re labelling PE Kits. Not so
good if you made the mistake of popping to
the loo mid craft session with your pesky
kids.
Thankfully, there are some ways to remove
permanent marker. As in a lot of situations,
alcohol may well be the answer!

4. Isopropanol/Ispropyl (or surgical spirit, to you and I) is a solvent that
has polar molecules (molecules with a positive charged molecule
that sticks to a negative charged molecule). If you sniff a sharpie
(please don’t!), it has a sharp, alcohol smell. Sharpies have n-propanol
alcohol, n-butanol and diacetone alcohol in them. They
have pretty similar structures to surgical spirit. All alcohol has polar
molecules. There is a "like dissolves like" rule. This means Polar
solvent + Polar solvent =dissolve/removal. The closer the types of
molecule and chemical make-ups are, the more likely they are to
dissolve or be removed.

5. So a cotton ball soaked in surgical spirit and rubbed over
the skin managed to get rid of my daughter’s Ninja
Turtle Tattoo. Wash the area well after with cold water
and a flannel to avoid skin irritation. If you have no
surgical spirit to hand (and the sooner the stain is
attended to, the better) then hand sanitizer also has a
similar alcohol make up, albeit in more diluted form.
This might also be a better option if you’re treating
sensitive skin. You could even use (cheap) Vodka. Not
to drink, you understand. Or to sedate the children.
Just to remove the pen.
If the stain has set, then exfoliating the skin first (with
coarse salt or sugar) and then applying the alcohol, may
be more effective.

6. When it comes to removing Sharpie from wooden items (i.e. the
floor in this case), it’s probably best to start with the least
abrasive options first. A good one to try, is toothpaste mixed
with one part baking soda (avoid gel toothpastes!).
Toothpastes are a gentle abrasive that can clean and polish
wood surfaces, as well as they clean and polish teeth.

7.  Squeeze a dab of toothpaste onto a clean, dry rag and forcefully
scrub away the stain with that section of the cloth.
 Use a separate clean, moist cloth to gently wipe away any
toothpaste residue when done.
It may take a few applications to get rid of the pen completely.
The toothpaste method is also a good one for removing
Sharpie from painted surfaces, like walls.

8. If the toothpaste isn’t doing the trick on the wood floor, try
applying Tea Tree Oil or WD-40 (same method as above) and if
that fails, revert to the surgical spirit (but test first on a non
visible area).

9. The next and final task was to remove the Sharpie
from the leather sofa. Our trusty friend, alcohol,
doesn’t help here. It’s too abrasive and will
damage the leather. So this is what you do:
1. Use aerosol hairspray and spray it onto a clean
rag/cloth to dampen. Gently wipe the marker stain.
Switch to cleaner sections of the rag often and
apply more hairspray as needed.
2. Using a clean, damp rag, wipe the area to remove
any residue. Continue this process until all of the
hairspray has been removed.
3. Once the cleaning is complete, be sure to apply a
leather conditioner to restore moisture that was
lost during the cleaning process.

10. So mission accomplished…. there are ways of cleaning off a
Sharpie pen. Even if it does take a little time. I’m just off to
finish that cheap vodka!

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