This sharpie marker marks permanent on cloth making it perfect for marking fabrics and synthetics it has a fine tip and stays permanent through washing and dry cleaning brief history of sharpie the popularity of sharpie markers continues to soar in the 1990s due in part to the 5 billion memorabilia industry autograph seekers and celebrities alike use sharpie markers on everything from posters and trading cards to balls and jerseys by the end of 2002 over 200 million sharpie marker