As an ink remanufacturer and filler, many people at home attempt to re-fill their ink cartridges and find that the ink used in printers is very hard to clean off. Unlike typical pen ink, printer ink is designed to be very permanent and it can be very hard to clean off. This is because most home printers use aqueous inks based on a mixture of water, glycol and some dyes or pigments. These dyes and pigments are what stay on your hands after an accidental spill or mis-hap.
Here are some of the best solutions of removing ink off your hands that I’ve found. Your results may vary depending on the type and color of ink you have on your skin.
- First, just like your mom would suggest, use soap and warm water to see how much of it you can get off. I’m sure most of the people reading this article have tried this; I just wanted to cover all the basics first.
- After you’ve tried to wash your hands with regular soap, step up a notch and purchase some lava soap. It’s commonly known as black soap and is made by WD-40. What sets this soap apart from regular soap is that it’s made with ground pumice, which is material that comes from lava (hence the name). With this added ingredient, it usually gets ink right off.
2. Another common household item that can be used to clean off ink (either on your hands or on other surfaces) is common hairspray. Simply spray it on the area of ink and let sit for 6-10 seconds. Then wash with soap and warm water.
3. If, after all these methods, you’re still seeing ink on your hands, I would recommend taking 1 part bleach and 10 parts water and soaking your hands for a few minutes. The bleach should clean the remaining ink off your hands. After you clean your hands, I would recommend applying a hand moisturizer since the bleach can remove more then just ink.
If you have any other suggestions or tips on how you cleaned ink off your hands, feel free to comment on this page.
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140 Comments (Leave a Reply)
Hair spray didn’t work at all so I mixed a little bleach with warm soap and water and it came right off. I thought I was going to be walking around with my left forefinger blue for a long time. Thank goodness for all the tips.
Judy
Nailpolish Remover – rub on a few spoonfuls on ink stain for 5 seconds. (If there is a female in the house, you will probably have some available). Finish off with some nourishing hand cream. *If you paint your nails, you will need to redo them.*
The bleach solution was my saviour after trying everything including industrial paint removal products! Afterwards my hand smelled like bleach but after washing them thoroughly with liquid soap and warm water, I cut a lemon in half, rubbed it all over my hands and left it for about 2 minutes – no more bleach smell and no more ink stains
Bleach worked fine for me. I tried turps, Metho, Acitone and Kerro but nothing would take off the ink from my hands and nails. it all came off withoug any trouble. Thank you for your wonderful tip. It works
Beryl
Thanks the bleach worked on my hands,now I need to see if the hair spray will work on my new spread I just got.
Thanks for the tips but the only thing that would get rid of the ink was bleach, was going crazy trying everything to get it off.
thanks again your a life saver
Nice ideas but I think it’s a long procedure. One can think about this in still smaller procedure….
The really easy way is to buy a bottle of LA’s Totally Awesome cleaner at your local dollar store ($1 at our local Dollar Tree and Dollar Store). I keep it handy dilute about 3 to 1 for all kinds of cleanup — and a quick spray on ink-stained hands is close to miraculous.
Treat it with respect on glass though; I scratched and speckled a favorite mirror by not diluting it enough. Great for grease and oil cleanup. Handy for many kinds of paint cleanup.
Life saver. Black ink, all over, was dreading it. Thanks to your post its just about gone. many, many thanks
Great tip , I was changing the ink on my pixma 630 when I took lid of before the tag and bam I got ink all over me , not only did I do this once but twice.
I will be passing this tip on , better than having ink covered hands for 4 weeks .
Bleach is work very well Thanks
got printing ink all over my hands . tried hairspay and got a little off but didnt have any bleach so tried bio washing powder with fairly hot water and a nail brush and it all came off after a few minutes , should be kinder than bleach hopefully
got printing ink all over hands . tried hairspray which took a little off, but had no bleach so used bio washing powder and hot water and nail brush. after a few minutes with the brush it all came off. wonderful and hopefully kinder than bleach
Glad I found this, I’ve just managed to cover my hands in pink ink and soap hasn’t taken it off. Now onto the hairspray suggestion! Thanks
None of the first 3 worked for us and my husband was reluctant to use bleach so instead used a clorox bleach pen which worked great!
I tried soap first and that dulled it, then I tried hairspray but no go as I had already used soap so then i tried the one part bleach with 10 parts water and that cleaned it off in about 20 seconds at the most so I would go straight for the bleach
a tiny bit of bleach 10/1 with soap and water took magenta right off. I was getting worried about my pink fingers.
Bleach worked the best. Thanks much.
I followed valerio suggestion. It mostly worked to remove off my fingers. However, getting it off my cuticles hasn’t worked thus far. I’ll repeat the action again tomorrow, in the meantime, I’m using plenty of Jurgens lotion
Used “Mean Green” cleaner and it got most of it off,safer for the skin too
Bleach worked brilliant. I tried Fairy liquid first, then nail varnish remover, then aerosol body spray and nothing worked then i tried 1 part bleach to 10 parts water
(using the lid of the bleach to measure) and it worked brilliantly. Dont forget to use hand cream / moisturising cream afterwards though. Does make a difference
As with most of the above, bleach worked a treat
Since bleach works for all kinds of stains i used it first, and it worked. LOL my printer’s blue ink cartridge had a leak so i had blue ink on my fingers
Thanks for the bleach suggestion. I had tried everything else in the world, and the bleach took it out in a matter of seconds!
Thank GOD. I had blue ink ALL over both my hands and I just filled a sink with hot water, poured some bleach in it, dunked my hands and the ink came off within 10 seconds. Thanks!
The bleach worked great! Thank you for putting this informatin out there! Like the others, I thought I was going to have to show up at work with large black patches on both hands. The bleach idea saved the day!
Fantastic worked like a dream. I now have spotless hands.
hairspray didn’t work. Bleach with water helped a lot. you guys saved me! i was panicking and going crazy. I spilled so much ink on my thumb and it looked like i had some sort of congenital skin anomaly of some sort.
AFTER READING REVIEWS, I TRIED THE BLEACH…WOW THE BLEACH TOOK IT RIGHT OFF….HAIR SPRAY DID NOTHING
OF COURSE MY HUSBAND SUGGESTED BLEACH INITIALLY…WHAT DO HUSBANDS KNOW? HAHA
The Bleach worked, but my hands started to smell after that. So, I soaked my hands for about 15 minutes. Then I washed my hands with soap. The hairspray worked a bit on the floor, it actually got everything off~
As a Printing Industry professional working in the inks game for 33 years, here’s a free tip for easy cleaning of hands and just about any fabric including carpet (yes I stained the carpet at home doh!) try Eucalyptus oil on a rag – its just the best and smells nice too…
WOW… its about three in the morining. I had to refill my ink in the printer to print my payroll final. TOTAL DISASTER. I went to the web site not expecting to find a solution., but CLOROX is the best thing ever invented. I mixed it with Palmolive to keep my hands extra soft. THANK YOU SO Much.
Bleach seems to be the only one to work, but I don’t want to use it because its on my face (long story that starts with a play fight and ends in me being hog tied). Any help?!
Tried hair spray, nail polish remover, oxy, diluted powdered bleach, engine degreaser, brake cleaner, carb cleaner. Non worked because I had dumped a half bottle of pigment black on me, the table and carpet. Went to the garage looking for the elusive liquid bleach and brought in a bottle of Simple Green. Said why not and all the colors and black are gone from the hands, cleaned the antique table like new and got 90% out of the burber rug, one spot where it had just drained off the table. Now waiting to see if any of the big puddle comes out of my jeans, or I have a new pair of cutoffs.
I used everything suggested on here before trying the bleach as a LAST resort. It’s mothers day weekend and I would have had stained hands all weekend. I took a cotton puff (like to take nail polish off) dipped it in bleach and it came off before my eyes. You have SAVED this mother’s Mothers Day!
I tried everything known to man and what really worked was the hair spray and believe it or not……granulated dishwasher detergent! Scrub with the green scruby of the sponges….mixed with water…works GREAT!
I use the bleach and it work great, I also added table salt (inbetween dips) to scrub the ink off my hands.
1 part bleach and 3 parts warm water works in seconds. Wonderful advice.
Anything i used didn’t work, got some surface ink off but when i used the bleach and water, worked and gone within 5 min time,, Thanks for the help
Thx for the comments as most others said Bleach did the trick just be sure to use 1 part bleach to 10 parts water or it may even remove your nails
Immersion in water-diluted bleach (10:1)for 20 seconds. Job done. Rubbed in moisturizing cream afterwards just in case. Surgical spirit, methylated spirit and washing-up liquid had all failed.
Thanks for your public-spiritedness.
abrasive sponge, water, and a variety of soap.
the 1 to 10 bleach ratio got most of the ink off of my hands, there’s just a little smudge on the back of my right hand, but its barely noticeable since I’m dark skinned. At least my hands aren’t pink any more
Thanks this site and Judy I no longer have black hands. I had an ink spill so there was lots of ink to get rid of. Hairspray and nail varnish remover never worked for me. Judy suggestion of warm saopy water and bleach worked a treat. I thank you. Hand cream is recommended as this solution may dry your hands out a bit.
Bleach worked just fine, gone is seconds. I’d already tired varsol, rubbing alcohol and turpentine.
Soft Scrub, the product used to clean porcilen sinks woerks great
Yeah like everyone else said bleach worked. We didn,t have any so I tried using my tide laundery detergent powder cuz I thought it had bleach in it. Not sure if it did, but it worked.
A BRILLO PAD Got it off my hands with considerable ease.
Tried solvent, Lava Hand Cleaner & hairspray with little success.
Black ink all over hands – tried nail polish remover, hair spray, Soft Scrub, baby wipes (which usually remove pen ink just fine), hydrogen peroxide, etc. Nothing helped until I used the Bleach solution. Non-chlorine bleach doesn’t work — it has to have the chlorine in it. Works in seconds!