The freezer is full of identical white bags and nobody knows which one is the fish. Sticky labels curl off in the cold and pencil vanishes on plastic. Permanent marker answers the whole family of jobs an ordinary pen refuses: bags in the freezer, cartons in the storeroom, cable ends behind the TV, a name inside a school shoe, a date on a paint tin. The ink is alcohol-based, so it dries fast on surfaces that are not paper and shrugs off water afterwards.
— The Ghalyh team · How we pick
Good for
Freezer bags and storeroom cartons · moving boxes and naming school kit · cables, tools and tin lids
Not for
Thin paper. On newsprint, exam paper or a notebook page the ink bleeds through and marks whatever is underneath, so it is not a note-taking pen. And on a whiteboard it needs a dry-erase marker scribbled over it before it will come off.
Specifications
- Ink
- Permanent, alcohol-based; water-resistant when dry
- Surfaces
- Plastic, metal, glass, wood, card, tape
- Care
- Cap it straight away — solvent ink dries out uncapped
Questions people ask
Does it survive the freezer and the dishwasher?
The freezer, yes — that is its main job. Repeated dishwasher cycles and scrubbing will fade it, so re-label containers you wash often, or write on tape stuck to the lid.
Will it come off skin or a table?
Skin fades with normal washing. On a smooth table, a little alcohol or hand sanitiser on a cloth usually lifts it; on raw wood or fabric, assume it stays.