Lil’ Duck and his friends have found the Sharpie permanent markers on occasion and boy can those make a mess! Thankfully, it can be removed, although I still need to work on the carpet. With this list, be careful as to the surface, as some of these things will ruin certain surfaces. I’d suggest spot-testing and using common sense (i.e. not putting bleach on carpet, not using chemicals on skin, etc. 
). Now if only I could get red koolaid out of carpet…
- Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
(also works for crayons, but don’t use it on skin, of course)
- WD-40
- Anti-bacterial hand gel
- Hairspray
- Cooking spray
- Nail polish remover
- Bleach (depending on the surface)
- Goof Off
*Updated to add other suggestions….
Eagles Wings suggested acetone for taking sharpies right off of plastic or hard surfaces (keep away from children, of course).
Renee said that rubbing alcohol will also remove permanent markers from smooth surfaces.
Mz Jay had an incident where:
My daughter got her hands on a thick black permanent marker(sharpie) she drew on paper but quite alot of it got on the kitchen table that has a wood finish on top. I used toothpaste and a toothbrush and it removed all the marker on the table! I let the toothpaste sit on all the marks for about 5 minutes and got an old toothbrush and scrubbed away! My table does not have any marker left on it, and the best part is that the toothpaste did not ruin my wood table or the finish thats on it. I would suggest using the white toothpaste rather than the gel types that are on the market.
Be careful using acetone on a gloss clear plastic! It will dull the finish and it is ruined. I work with clear plastic film that is applied to cars for paint protection. My 2 year old son used a nice sharpie to draw a great picture on one of cars that has the plastic film and my wife tried using acetone to get it out. It did get the sharpie out, but it ruined the paint protection film. Just sayin.
WD-40 worked very easy, with no damge. I used it on plastic.
Tried Olive oil cooking spray on grey sharpie that had been on a wood desktop for quite sometime. Removed it all with no damage to the desk surface.
expo cleaner gets it off of white boards… even if it’s been there months
Beware with hand sanitizer….it will also take the clear coat off any finish.