OK, parents.  This is where you get to chime in with some real world advice for us mascots.

A friend of mine was at an appearance, and was signing t-shirts, when a kid comes up with a short sleeve polo shirt on.  This friend of mine decided he didn’t want to ruin the shirt (the t-shirts the others were wearing were from a camp, so it’s a safe bet that no one will have a problem with a signature on those) but he also didn’t want the kid walking away empty-handed.  So in a split-second decision, he signed the kid’s forehead.