Sharpie and Polaroids = Special Moments Made

Did you know that Polaroid cameras have been around since 1948, and Sharpie permanent markers since 1964! Makes you wonder how people personalized their polaroid pictures before Sharpie came around? How did they ever remember the date, and if they wrote it with a regular pen or pencil, how did they keep it from wiping off? For those of our readers who may not know what a polaroid camera is, let's take you back!

Now we can capture digital images and slap a sepia tone filter on them and make them look like a retro photo, then use a photo editing app to fit it into a polaroid frame and bam we have our "perfect photo" in digital form. But with a polaroid camera, there was not a filter. These cameras were used to capture a very specific moment, which then popped out immediately from the camera on a piece of film that you could watch develop in real time. Songs were written about how you had to shake the photo to develop it, hence the lyrics "shake it like a polaroid picture". Since the creation of polaroid, new models have come about like the Polaroid Now i-Type which is super adorable!

Using these cameras people can snap a quick photo of a special moment, but this is a single print, immediately viewable, and non duplicate-able photo. In order to get another print you would have to take the image elsewhere and scan it digitally to reprint it. Because these prints are known for capturing special moments, Polaroid has done a great thing by adding a little white section at the bottom of every printed photo where the photographer or even the subjects of the photo can then take their Sharpie and write the date, or the way that moment made them feel, or whatever they chose on that photo to remember that moment forever! If you owned a polaroid you usually had a Sharpie close by because you knew you wanted to label that photo and add that special touch.

Some would even say that Sharpie's were the perfect pen for these moments and were a "great pen for Instax film". With all of the color options available from Sharpie and the ability to write in your own handwriting at that exact moment, there is a special feeling that comes with that captured moment, every time you look back at that photo in the future.

Wether you want to capture a year in photos and remember how life was during the COVID pandemic,

or a Padres baseball player looking to find a way to bond with your teammates in a special way to celebrate victories and memories on the dugout wall; by using Sharpie's products, and Polaroids, these moments can be captured and forever remembered. These types of moments are just another way that you can "Leave Your Mark with Sharpie"!