Hindsight is 20/20 and I realize this probably wasn’t the best idea to begin with…
(Scott Kirkland, if you were wondering…)
Clean the area carefully (you want to remove existing dirt and skin oils without damaging the autograph any further).
Mask the area off with painters tape.
Spray with 3 thin coats of spray polyurethane from the hardware store.
Give it a couple days to completely cure before handling it.
May be better to wait a bit between coats? Just so it dries a bit.
Always follow the label, otherwise you invite trash results. Waiting depends on the specs.
E.g., Many Rust-Oleum products have a closed window period. You can spray them up quite a bit in a certain window, then you have to wait for things to completely cure–sometimes like 24 or 48 hours before you can spray it again.
You’re absolutely correct. It’s been a while since I’ve used the rattle cans. I’ve been spoiled with an airbrush. Totally forgot about those directions, sorry.
Listen to this commenter, follow the can directions.
I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve screwed up many projects by not bothering to read the label. 😏
I got answers here but you’ll need to do a little leg work.
First off, get a good guess at what the marker is. If it’s permanent ink, it’s probably using alcohol base, if it’s acrylic it’s water, etc. Depending on the solvent used in the marker you can pick a coating material that won’t damage the original markings. You’re going to want it in spray can form unless you own an airbrush.
If all else fails, someone else pointed out automotive clear coat. That will do fine if you follow the info carefully.
Once you have a clear coat that either does or preferably doesn’t react with the mark, you’re going to tape off your phone. Masking tape is fine, I find washi tape from the scap booking section to work better. It sticks tighter but peals back up easily and without residues. Go around the camera hump, over the surface, around the outside, and completely cover the screen. Always do more than you think is necessary, because it’s easier to waste tape than remove paint.
Now for the best results you’re going to want a hot, dry, windless environment. If it’s not like that outside you can do it indors with ventilation, just lay down and old sheet and open some windows.
Now your clear coat is going to be in a spray can. Look around the tip for a mark on the can, that will indicate the angle of the intake. Point the sprayer the same direction and test it a few times on cardboard until you have a good and steady stream. Practice the next part if you have any doubts about yourself. Just cut a piece of cardboard that’s phone sized and pretend you’re doing the real thing.
You’re going to start each spray off to the side of the target. The initial push and your ability to move is not perfect even after years of doing this and will lead to a wet spot. Make sure that spot is on the work area and not the piece. Steadily move across the piece and end the spray on the work area again, this prevents splatter.
You’re going to gently dust the phone in coat. Adjust to the next pass and do it again. Then let this coat dry completely not tacky, not dull, full dry.
Turn the phone 90 degrees and do it again. You’re going to repeat this process 30 or 40 times. Eventually it will build up into one solid coating across the entire surface. Ideally you let that cure for 24 hour.
This is your phone so I understand if that’s not doable, just make sure to ler each coat dry.
I studied paper conservation so this is technically out of my wheelhouse. But while I was doing my MA we had an external tutor come in and demonstrate how to conserve various synthetic paints. The problem you’re having is the pigment has become friable as the solvent has evaporated. It may be possible to replace some of that lost solvent by exposing the signature to the right solvent in a gas chamber (stuff that you should leave to a professional conservator that works in this medium). The signature will still be susceptible to being abraded off so a cover would be needed. Preferably one that doesn’t contact the signature.
Professional conservation work is not cheap so you’d need to get a quote and judge if it is worth it to you.
It looks like the solvent from the ink has stained the case which will be more permanent than the friable pigment. You could just accept that the pigment is going to fall off and live with the signature’s underlying stain (though you’d still probably be wise to put a clear case on the phone to reduce the abrasion caused by handing and pocket storage). Be aware that the stain may become less recognisable with age (like an old tattoo) as the solvent spreads on the case.
If you are keen to try to fix it yourself the most important thing to do is get your hands on the exact same marker and a similar substrate as the phone body to test any proposed solutions. Give any test time to show itself. I relabeled thousands of books in an archive with a permanent archival pen then put adhesive clear covers over them, after five years none of those labels are readable anymore as the solvent in the adhesive made the ink spread. They were fine while I still worked there but I was getting some stink eye when I paid visit those five years later.
Go to an auto parts store and get some spray clear coat! Do a few layers
Not all clear coats react well with all markers.
Could easily dissolve the signatures and ruin it.
Resin or hard coat prob. Make sure you cover up anything you don’t want coated in goo
I was thinking airbrush/clear coat, but pouring a coating on may be ideal and faster, provided I can source the materials fast enough.
I wonder if you’d have to consider what type of ink it is. It might bleed after you put anything on top. I remember spraying a munny doll with some primer or whatever after painstakingly drawing on it with sharpies only for the whole thing to melt off lol
It’s a sharpie, and I speculate it may have been specially for fabric (if there is such a thing), further adding to the preservation conundrum.
But anything alcohol based (or is a substance that has molecules around the same size) would melt a sharpie really quick.
You got me thinking about this differently now, specifically about different solvents that would have been in your spray primer. Acetone is common in epoxies and primers, and it will aggressively remove sharpies as well. (Water is also a solvent, and smaller than acetone or isopropyl, but something something polar/non-polar, or something. Sharpie ink is naturally hydrophobic anyway, but not completely.) Other, equally effective solvents exist to remove sharpie and also, well, act as a solvent for other uses.
So, point being, you just eliminated what is likely to be a fairly large range of possible coating options to choose from, which is a good thing. (I completely forgot solvents are a huge thing to consider, as did a few others here.)
Satan?
Lulz! I mean, maybe though? It really depends on how you choose to enjoy your club nights, I suppose. ;)
Here is a random example of what we are working with, however:
I mean, taking a high quality picture of it, like this, is a great way.
And that is exactly what I have resigned myself into, my friend.
If all other options fail, this exact picture is perfect.
I’ll still remember looking at this completely starstruck while me and my wife (of 25 years this month; hence the TCM+Okenfold concert being the perfect marriage, in itself, of our musical taste.) were sitting on the street tripping our balls off in the wonderful Denver atmosphere of weed smoke and piss smell, all while trying to enjoy the fresh air with a few drags from an American Spirit cigarette. (Incidentally, I was wearing the same cargo pants she bought me for one of our first parties over a quarter century ago.)
In the most literal sense, a picture is worth a thousand words in this case. It’ll be an instant flashback, at anytime.
That’s a lovely story. Thank you for telling it to me.
I have one for you, where I accidentally ended up getting a free ticket to a concert at Red Rocks but turned it down because I was confused and uncertain.
And I wasn’t high or anything.
Red Rocks is a wonderful venue, too! Awww! Sorry for your loss. :(
I only go there for artists that absolutely respect what that place has to give. It’s a “sacred” venue for me, TBH.
We were at Cervantes Ballroom tonight, and TBH, it’s a bit cramped and can be a little rough for some, but the sound is absolutely peak quality. Don’t turn down tickets for that place either, is my point. (I am friends with a local death metal singer that knows the owner and he said quite a bit of money was spent on that sound system.)
I once encountered GoatWhore in an underground pirate ship just off the coast of Lake Tahoe because I was protecting the propiety of my very beautiful friend.
There’s nothing quite like getting screamed at 2 feet away. And loving it.
That was a combination of words I wouldn’t have ever thought could be in a single sentence, but yet, here we are.
While not my preferred cup of tea, death metal shows and crowds are super wholesome, usually. My daughter is a big fan, so I got the honor of taking her around Dever to various dive bars so she could learn the ropes of these kinds of events. We both got to see Party Cannon in a super small venue, so that was fucking awesome! (I have since released her to find her own demise and she has only lost one fingernail and had to nurse one or two fairly serious bruises since. Neat.)
I get it, and y’all are generally my kind of people. ;)
You fucking rock my friend.
That’s tight. I would keep that around for a while, for sure.
I may end up just buying a new phone, TBH.
Encase it in a block of resin then!
Like so:
Practise with other things first though ofc
(I responded to your other comment already, but just inserting a disclaimer for the broader populus that encasing a lithium battery in resin, while possibly briefly entertaining, is no bueno and potentially extremely damaging to any squishy bits you hold dear on your body. Just covering all the bases, friend!)
I was gunna say to encase it in resin, but I realized that’s the actual phone haha. Maybe practise pouring epoxy resin on surfaces, and see what it does to ink like that on surfaces like that… I think the heat might fuck with it, also you might want to use a torch on the resin to get rid of any bubbles (just ‘glancing’ passes with the torch, so it shouldn’t create that much more heat then the setting resin). Get the same brand of marker and a similar material; probably anything plastic would do. You’d then have to make some sort of mould that can attach to the phone in shape you like and sand it down afterwards.
Resin creates heat when setting, so it would be best if you take the phone back off… I doubt you can though so…
https://resinobsession.com/resin-frequently-asked-questions/how-to-layer-resin/
https://resinpassion.com/why-use-a-torch-to-get-rid-of-bubbles-on-epoxy-resin/
Encasing the phone would be a “solid” option if it weren’t for the lithium bomb that the phone contains. (
I could probably just fully discharge it somehow, but bypassing the charge controller to make that happen would be problematic.Deep discharging bad too.)A super thin coat of resin is still a good option and the heat may be manageable in that case. The phone body is designed to sink quite a bit of heat already, so likely not a serious issue.
Quite a bit to think on! Thanks! :)
Edit: Oh shit. I just realized that encasing the phone in resin and then having the lithium battery decide to off itself in a dramatic way could be 10x more catastrophic than I originally thought, making it absolutely not ideal for air travel. Lol!
Wtf.
Just enjoy it and the moment.
Also get a new phone.
