The Ultimate Guide: How to remove ink stains

Updated 08/12/22

Most people at one point in their lives will experience a nasty ink stain that is extremely difficult to get rid of. Believe it or not, there are several ways to remove them. If you want to know how to remove printer ink from clothes, or what removes printer ink from skin then we’re here to help. With everything from your finest leather booties to the carpet, this is the ultimate guide: how to remove ink stains.

 

Removing ink from your skin

Tools you’ll need:

• Tea-tree oil
• Nailbrush
• Cloth

Printer ink most commonly finds its way onto the end of our fingers when we’re having trouble replacing cartridges. No matter how empty the printer is, the blotches are damp enough to make us look like finger painters for a few days. The trick with most ink stains is to act fast, so stop what you’re doing and get rid of the stain before it sinks in.

A trusted technique is reaching for tea tree oil. All you need to do is put a few drops onto a nailbrush or cloth and scrub the marks until they’ve lifted. Printer ink stains can be stubborn so just reapply until they have gone – then thoroughly wash your hands because tea tree and eyes do not get on.

 

How to remove printer ink from clothes

Removing ink from clothing is only really successful if you act immediately.

Tools you’ll need:

• Clean cloth
• A bowl of cold water
• Alcohol-based hair spray
• Chlorine bleach

Begin by dabbing at the material with a cold cloth of water to take the surface ink out of the stain. Next, you should allow the stain to dry naturally before finding an alcohol-based hairspray to break up the rest of the ink. Place a dishcloth (this will get stained too most likely so don’t use a cloth you care about) beneath the stain and apply a generous amount of hairspray to the mark. Once the printer ink stain has dried again, dab at it with a damp cloth and you should be able to get the majority of the stain out.

If you don’t have hairspray to hand, for white fabrics use chlorine bleach mixed with cold water to remove the stain. It’s important to use cold water, as hot water will set the ink into your fabric.

 

Warning:

No matter what tips on how to remove ink stains you use, please be careful and heed the following warning…For coloured fabrics, use a mixture of your detergent and ammonia with cold water but make sure you test the material before applying it. Be very careful not to mix these two mixtures as ammonia and chlorine create a toxic gas when mixed.

 

How to remove ink stains from your furniture

If you’re handling upholstered furniture, follow the same process as you would with removing ink from clothes. However, when treating wood you have a few more options. If you’re looking for how to remove ink from painted wood, you can use any of the following products but it’s recommended you do a patch test somewhere inconspicuous first to check that the colour is not affected.

Baking soda method

Baking soda is always cropping up on cleaning forums as the best cleaning agent of all time. Well, it will help you out when it comes to ink stains too. All you need to do is create a paste with cold water to form a fairly solid paste and rub this into the stain being careful not to sand the wood at the same time. Repeat until the stain has lifted then use a detergent or rubbing alcohol to lift the glaze that the baking soda may have left.

Alcohol method

You can either use alcohol-formulated hair spray for this, or rubbing alcohol. Simply apply the alcohol to a cotton bud and use it to wipe the ink-stained patch on your furniture until it has cleared up. Wipe the area with water when you’ve finished rinsing away the alcohol.

Getting ink stains out of leather

How to remove ink stains from leather is slightly different but no matter how you’ve got printer ink or your finest leather or suede goods, the trick is still getting it out early. Because of the natural properties of these materials, they tend to absorb the ink fairly quickly and the longer you leave it, the harder it will be to remove.

Tools you’ll need:

• Toothbrush
• Rubbing alcohol

To get ink stains out of leather you need rubbing alcohol, a toothbrush and some elbow grease. Test patch the alcohol on a small area of the material first and if it goes well, saturate the rest of the stain in the rubbing alcohol and scrub thoroughly. If you can’t get the stain out yourself, it’s best to call the professionals before you damage the material beyond repair.

 

How not to remove ink stains from clothes

When it comes to ink stains in clothing we really can’t stress enough how quickly you need to act and whilst you may have been looking for tips on how to remove ink stains, we thought we’d also show you what not to do! We made our very own attempt and a shoddy one at that! We didn’t heed our own advice and the results are, well catastrophic! Take a look at our video below to see how not to remove ink stains from a white shirt!

 

Good luck with your pesky ink stains. I hope this article has been helpful and you manage to get rid of your stain. Have you tried these tips yourself? Let us know how you got on in the comments below!