Travels over for signed travel uke?

Hi everyone, I've a little problem and I could use some good advice.

I got my Kala spruce travel uke signed by the band Midlake at a recent festival. I love it!



Trouble is, this isn't an opportunist eBay thing, and I don't want more signatures either - I want to take my travel uke to a lot more festivals and play it without rubbing off the Midlake sigs.

It's signed with a Sharpie, I believe. How can I coat/spray/paint/tape or somehow protect the front of the uke so that it looks neat, protects the sigs and doesn't bleed the ink?

Any help much appreciated as always - this uke MUST continue to be my Festy beater, just with added Midlake cool

I'd suggest (after experimentation with a Sharpie and a bit of wood to check the ink won't run) carefully varnishing just the signatures. But I may be being an idiot.

I know what you mean, though - I once got a seamstress to sew the signatures into a signed Liverpool shirt so I could carry on wearing and washing it...

(I feel I need to reply, not only to say thanks but also to say --- She said "I know you and you cannot sing" I said "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano...")

I was hoping for some sort of light spray on lacquer or some such?

Try posting your question in the luthiers forum on this site. If anyone would know what you can put on the surface of an ukulele without ruining it, luthiers would.