Sharpie on Lime Plaster help!!!

[inclusivehistory]

We've had a bit of sharpie graffiti on lime plaster and I'm looking for some help. Lime plaster is from 1930s following a traditional English recipe. Anybody have any insight?

[Gothichome]

Welcome to the District, that’s a tough one I have never had to deal with. The ink in sharpies tend to soak into things, drawn in by the carrier agent I would think. I’m sure you have tried all the usual things plus maybe the more obscure options hinted at on the net to no avail. Traditional plaster has a top coat of plaster 1/8 to 3/16 thick. It will be the same colour all the way through. You might try some thing abrasive like an ink eraser or toothpaste. This will remove a bit of the surface. The hope being the ink hasn’t. Soaked in to deep.
Tell us more of your old home, and pictures we love to see others old homes here. Even pics of the blighted wall.

[1918ColonialRevival]

No guarantees this will work, but try naphtha and melamine foam. I've had some success getting marker graffiti off of wood pinball and arcade cabinets using this method.

[phil]

I think it is the non permanent ones that are most troublesome. it never really dries, then bleeds through paint. maybe a primer like Killz? maybe mask off everything but the repaired area? is the plaster not painted?

[mjt]

Sharpies bleed through regardless of whether the wall is plaster or wallboard. SWMBO thought it would be fun to let the kids loose with sharpies on the mudroom at our previous home (suburban McMansion) before we ripped out the closet and replaced it with built-in cubbies and a bench. The painter (me) was not amused. Kilz was the only thing that stopped the bleed-through.

[GibsonGM]

Spot prime and feather in, with a throwaway brush, using "B I N" alcohol-based white-pigmented shellac. Stir well. May take 5 or more coats to cover the ink; allow to dry about 30-45 minutes between coats (will be dry to touch). Keep brush in product can while waiting to dry or it'll get rock hard. This will seal it in, you will then have to repaint the wall. Do not get it on anything you don't want forever marked! Cleans up w/ammonia or denatured.

Don't bother with an oil primer, it MAY work but is awkward, smells for longer, builds a thicker layer, takes a long time to get many layers, pulls roller hairs, etc etc. You simply want to BLOCK the ink. First couple of coats may appear to do little, but it actually is.

[1918ColonialRevival]

Now that I read it again, I'm thinking based on the original post that this is unfinished plaster. If that's the case, if the recipe is known, the only way to keep it unfinished would be to re-create the recipe and skim coat it. The new plaster will stick out, so you'll probably have to skim coat the whole wall.