Tips For Removing Ink Stains

Ink stains make a total mess of our clothes if they are not treated as soon as possible and with the right stuff. The first thing you have to know about those nasty stains is that they are different kinds – water-based, permanent and ballpoint. To help you get some ideas of how to deal with all kinds of ink stains, here are some tips.

Many things could become the victims of ink stains – washable fibers (for example cotton and linen), non-washable fibers (silk, wool), wood, leather, soft (glass, ceramic) or delicate (marble) surfaces and so on. Usually the most common objects which get stained are clothes.

Permanent ink stains are a nightmare to remove, especially from fabric, whereas water-based ink stains and ballpoint ink stains are more easily treated. When you have to deal with permanent ink stains, hope that the piece of clothing could be bleached, as bleach has a big chance of removing them. However, if it can’t be used, there are still some steps you could follow in order to at least fade the stain. For example, you could put a clean towel under the stained garment and use alcohol to rub the stain. Ink will start soaking the towel so make sure to move the clothing to the clean and dry parts of it. After it seems that no more ink could be removed, rinse thoroughly in order to completely wash out the alcohol. With permanent ink stains you could also try fingernail polish remover, but you have to be warned that it may severely damage the fabric, especially if it’s delicate.

Water-based ink stains and ballpoint ink stains are simpler to remove. The first type you usually get if you use some kind of a marker (but not a permanent one). The best solution is to put a dry towel under the stained garment (as you would do with clothes stained with permanent ink), put some water on the damaged spot and start blotting with another cloth. Make sure all towels are clean.

After that apply a small amount of laundry detergent and let it sit for some minutes. Wash out with the hottest water suitable for the kind of fabric and, as usual, repeat the steps if there are any traces of ink left, because if you dry it before everything is gone, you wouldn’t be able to remove it later. With ballpoint ink stains you could combine both ways of dealing with the other two types of ink stains – apply alcohol, blot, rinse, and after washing apply laundry detergent and do the same.

As with all kinds of stains, ink stains may be tough to remove, but not impossible. The thing you should always keep in mind is to deal with them as soon as possible and be careful not to damage what you want to clean even more.