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Right then folks good news I have been working on a stage show! That's when a problem emerged. For an effect I'm wanting to do requires secretly writing on my hand and being then able to discretely remove it again. The pen will be some sort of marker (Dry wipe?) and i need to get it off of my hands so I'm left clean at the end and don't have to worry about showing my palm any ideas?

Matt

I assume that the audience never knows about this writing? Could you not perhaps have a billet, business card or something held in the palm that you could write on and then just dump when you're done with it?

Yep without saying to much basically the wider audience never knows about the writing. And I have toyed with the idea of a small billet but it loses a bit in the size of the writing which is less than ideal. I have considered using a licked hand and rubbing them together as other things on stage happen but is a bit awkward and I don't want to be seen drying my hands off on my trousers prior to shaking hands or touching someone. Might come across as a bit gross. ( Also tried a postit note great size pain in the backside to pull out of a pocket without it picking up all the fluff in existence and no longer being sticky). My show director is having an ask around some of her old theater friends in case they might have an idea but figured here would be a good place to start.

What will you be wearing? Would there be an excuse to put a hand in your pocket?

Without more information this is a difficult question to answer. Are you writing just a few numbers or letters or an entire sentence or more. And yes you don't want to lick your hand and then shake hands or anything of that manner. Is what you have on your hand written before the presentation. If not how are you going to write on your hand without your audience knowing? And if it is written before then the billet and ditch would work better. Certainly you can provide enough distraction to ditch a piece of paper. And if writing during the presentation then you are looking at a swami or some other simiar device and if you can pull that off certainly you can again ditch the item.

What is happening around this moment. It seems from the brief tidbit of info that you really need to look at what is happening before and after as that is where all the dirty work is happening.

If you really need to get the 'ink' off your hands, perhaps a cleaner on a clean rag that you would use to wipe your hands at some point during the show in front of everyone. A time and a reason can be created for this purpose.

Unfortunatly in this craft, not everything is cut and dry, even when the question sounds easy.

And now with the new fangled smart watches can you not just type what you want into the watch? Of course I can't afford the new iwatch but hey, it is a possiblity.

Can use my pockets no problem I'm in suit trousers. Getting the writing on the hand is done with a bit of clever choreography with my trusty props manager. As for billets its not the ditching that is the problem it is simply being able to palm something while performing the actions required is just not feasible unfortunately otherwise that would be my go to method at this point. possibly using a rag quickly off stage as I seem to get a glass of water might be one possibility.
Does anyone know if there is maybe one of these new cleaning putty things I can roll in my hand discretely that might remove for instance a dry wipe marker which is probably the easiest thing to remove? (writing is 2 digits on one of my palms in dry wipe marker or similar) Thanks for the good ideas so far guys.

If you can use a pocket why not have a Wet Wipe in a pocket, that should do the job

Not sure I'm keen on having something damp in my pocket for too long though with a bit of organisation I suppose I could ditch it with my pad. Though minor brainwave that alcohol disinfectant hand sanitizer in those tiny bottles seems to work well if my mind serves me correctly if anyone else happens to know as I don't seem to have any floating around to try?

I'll drop you a PM...

I've 2 ideas:
- Laminate your hand! Now you can use a dry erase marker.
- Use a frixxion pen. Now you just need to hold your hand over a candle for long enough to cause the ink to vanish!

OK, now for the serious answer
I know I've used something to write on my hands, and then just rubbing the hands together caused the writing to go away. I can't remember what it was. But definitely not ink, something that kind of flakes off like crayon.

OK... I was totally joking about the frixxion pen and the candle. But I just found my frixxion pen, and wrote on my hand. Then I rapidly rubbed the ink about 3 times with my thumb and the ink vanished.
Try it out!

I guess the friction causes enough heat.

Now I'm going to put my hand in the freezer to see if the writing comes back!

late back been a busy easter but after a bit of trial and error I happened to find out that a large whiteboard marker comes of really rather easily with the natural oils in the sweat from your palms when in a warm enough environment. Needs the small amount of moisture though and thankfully now it is getting warmer less of a problem. Thank you all for the ideas as now if I should ever need to remove marker in a hurry I am all good.

Matt