Once upon a time, people wished they could write with an indelible ink that wouldn’t wash away. So permanent marker pens were invented. I now have a soccer ball covered with permanent marker (long story). And for once, a product lives up to it’s name. It’s resisted detergent and water, rubbing alcohol, mineral spirit paint thinner, and even acetone-based nail polish remover. But the ink itself in the pen has to be dissolved in something: benzene? carbon tetrachloride? What will remove permanent ink, and where could I buy it?
P.S. Hopefully, I will never need ink that’s resistant to permanent-ink remover.
This isn’t quite the same, but if you accidentally write with permanent marker on one of those dry-erase boards, don’t spend your time trying to clean it off with alcohol. Just take one of the dry-erase markers and completely scribble over the permanent markings - just like magic, the permanent maker then wipes away easily with the eraser.
Of course, I never told my boss about that trick and he was endlessly using the wrong marker - it was always good for a laugh to put a permanent marker within his easy reach.
Per Guy Propski’s post given the absorbent nature of soccer ball surface unless the ink is sitting on some shiny painted section you are probably screwed. You can use an SOS nylon scouring pad with embedded abrasives to remove surface ink but the ball will probably end up looking worse than with the marker. You might try white shoe polish as a covering agent but removing the ink is nigh impossible without potentially damaging the ball.
I think all the previous posters (PPs? I like that. Is that a standard SDMS acronym? If not, lets make it one.) are barking up the wrong tree(s) by their suggestions of solvents and abrasives.
This won’t help on your soccer ball, but on non-porous surfaces like desks, you can moisten the surface (saliva works better than water, but don’t tell anyone I said that) and use an ordinary pencil eraser.
I’m with stuyguy, try Softscrub with bleach. I’ve also had great luck with Auntie Pams hairspray suggestion. Took silver spray paint out of a dark brown carpet. Really old, dried in, tried-to-steam-clean paint. Amazing!
However, if the ball is leather instead of vinyl, I don’t hold out much hope.
I don’t know if it will work on the soccer ball problem, but I’ve had good luck getting stuff out of fabrics and off walls with a product called Goo Gone. It’s fun to say, too.
