How To Get Ink Off Skin, Hands, Clothes, and Fabric

Yuck! Printer ink on your hands…your clothes…your fabric! Noooooo!

Now, how to get ink off skin and clothes? What to do!?

Chill out. We can fix this. Follow the steps below to get printer ink off hands, clothes, and fabrics.

The longer ink sits and soaks into your skin or clothes, the more difficult it is to remove.

Whether you need to remove printer ink from skin or clothes, you’re going to want to blot away the excess ink immediately and rinse with cold water.

How To Get Ink Off Skin

You don’t know how this happened (or perhaps you do) but you found yourself having some ink on your skin. Here’s how to get ink off skin and clothes.

Obviously, the next thing you probably want is to get rid of that unnatural thing as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this can be quite a tedious task at times.

But everything is easier when you know how to approach it.

So let’s quickly see how to remove ink from the skin the right way.

How to Remove Ink From the Skin? – Standard Solution

In most cases, Lava soap and GoJo degreaser can get printer ink off your skin.

This is because it contains grit and solvents which abrade away ink stains on the skin.

HP claims washing with gritty soap should work, but sometimes you need other, more intensive methods to remove printer ink from the skin.

Let’s see what options we have other than Lava soap and GoJo degreaser to get ink off skin and clothes:

What Removes Ink From Skin? – More Options:

The ammonia in glass cleaners is good at dissolving printer ink:

1. Spray some Windex on your inky skin
2. Let it sit
3. Then rub the inky skin
4. Wash it with soap and water

Hairspray can also remove ink from skin:

1. Spray your inky skin with hairspray
2. Let it sit
3. Rub your inky skin and
4. Wash with soap and water

Baby oil can also break up ink stains on the skin:

1. Rub some baby oil into the stain to loosen the ink
2. Wash it with soap and water

Tea tree oil or nail polish remover can also help to remove ink from skin, but both of those options are rather stinky.

Everything else failed? Wow. You need a pumice stone.

They use these down at the nail salon to take the dead skin off your gnarly feet, but you can also use one to scrap the ink off your skin on other parts too.

Ink On Hands: How To Get Ink Off Your Hands

If you often deal with printers and ink cartridges dreaded  are inevitable.

But don’t panic. Printer ink is not toxic on your skin.

However, if you got some ink on your hands you still need to remove it.

So, how to get ink off skin when it’s your hands?

Since hands are also made of skin removing printer ink from hands is not different from the process of removing printer ink from skin that we described above.

So, if you need to remove ink from your hands just follow the advice we already gave above and you should be able to easily get ink off your hands.

A nail file, emery board, or sandpaper can also do the trick.

We even saw a guy named Araem use  to remove ink stains from his hands. (Araem probably has minty fresh breath, too!)

The only scenario when getting printer ink off your hands can be difficult it’s when ink is under your nails and is therefore hard to reach.

However, this is also not a big deal, as the only thing you will most likely need in this case is a little more time and a little bit more patience.

If you got printer ink under your fingernails just follow the cleaning process described in the previous section until your hands and nails are completely clean.

Note: Please note that the skin under your nails can be more sensitive compared to skin on your hands. So, if you have a printer ink under your fingernails and you want to clean it – do so with extra care.

How to Get Printer Ink out of Clothes

Arg, the agony of how to get ink off skin and clothes! Removing ink from skin in one thing.

Removing ink stains from fabric and clothes is another kettle of fish altogether…and stinks almost as bad!

It seems everybody has a “special secret” for removing ink stains from clothing . . . even your Grandma!

Do a quick search for stain removal and you’ll find solutions that range from  to .

But the basics of removing ink stains from clothes and fabric remain the same. Get on it quickly with cold water.

Let it dry, then attack with cleaning solutions.

Removing Printer Ink from Clothes – Supplies You Need:

• Denatured alcohol or methylated spirit (available at most hardware stores)
• Cotton balls or pads
• Salt
• Milk
• Soapy water – optional

Removing Printer Ink from Clothes – Process:

1. Treat the stain immediately. Ink stains on clothes are very difficult to remove once they’ve set in.
2. Check the laundry tag. If the ink-stained garment is washable, proceed to step three. If not, you’re heading to the dry cleaner.
3. Saturate a cotton ball or pad with denatured alcohol and thoroughly moisten the stain.
4. As the cotton picks up the ink, repeat step three until the cotton has absorbed all the ink and comes away clean.
5. Flush the stain with denatured alcohol and allow it to dry completely.
6. Alcohol may not remove all water-based ink stains on clothing. If this is the case, wash the garment in lukewarm soapy water.
7. If any ink remains on the garment, rub the stain with salt and let it sit in a bowl of milk overnight. Milk? Yeah, milk. Ink stains on your clothes can be lifted out in the wash if you presoak them in a mixture of milk and lemon juice.
8. Rinse the stain with cold water and launder as usual.

What about Toner?

We all know that ink is not the only thing that you can find on your clothes when dealing with printers. There is also toner.

Toner is different from ink and so are its removing methods.

Let’s see below what you should do to get printer toner out of your clothes.

What Is the First Thing You Should Do to Get Toner Dust Off Your Clothes?

Strip naked!

No, seriously, take off the clothing you spilled toner on. It’ll be easier to remove the toner particles.

Next, shake that toner dust off. Go outside or stand over a garbage can to catch the loose toner particles.

Don’t get a toner stain wet! Water will set the stain in deeper, not wash it away. The hotter the water, the worse the stain becomes.

Finally, use a vacuum attachment to suck loose toner particles out of the clothing. 

The more powder you can get out via dry methods, the less likely the stain will set.

How to Get Toner out of Clothes?

Now that you’ve removed all the loose toner, dry toner particles from your clothes, you can try the following to get toner stains out of clothes:

Step 1: Shake It Off. Take off the garment with a toner stain, take it outside or over a garbage can, and shake it like a Poloroid picture.

Try to get as much loose toner dust off the clothes as possible.

Step 2: Keep It Dry. Brush the loose toner off with a dry paper towel or cloth.

If you get those particles of toner dust wet, they will dissolve and set in. The warmer the water the faster the toner will dissolve and set in. So don’t get it wet!

Step 3: Suck It Up. You don’t want to short-circuit your household vacuum by sucking up giant piles of charged toner.

But if you’ve only got a smattering of toner particles on your clothes (and you should if you followed Steps 1 & 2), then you can use a standard vacuum to lift the remaining toner off your clothes.

Step 4: Now Get Wet. Once all the loose toner is off your clothes it’s time to follow standard washing methods.

Swish your clothes around in a sink filled with cold water.

Step 5: Rinse and Repeat. Empty the sink and rinse your clothing thoroughly with cold tap water. Repeat Step 4 and 5, if stains remain.

Step 6: All Washed Up. Toss your clothes in the washing machine and wash with as mild detergent and cold water only.

Step 7: Natural Dry Out. Let your clothes air-dry indoors or in the shade after washing.

Don’t put them in an automated dryer or in direct sunlight. If any toner particles remain, you don’t want them melting into your clothes!

How To Remove Printer Ink From Fabric

Removing printer ink from fabric is similar to removing ink from clothing.

For the most part, follow the same steps above for cloth cleaning.

However, fabrics, like rugs and couch covers, can be more forgiving than clothing.

You can use more powerful cleaning agents on fabric . . . and more elbow grease. (Wait! Don’t mix ammonia and bleach…you’ll create a toxic gas!)

How to Get Printer Ink out of Carpet

Even if you managed to keep your skin, hands, and clothes away from ink there are still other places where it can drop (or be surprisingly found without any real possibility of being there).

Carpet is the next popular place where ink is usually found, so it’s a useful thing to know what to do if this happened.

So, how to remove printer ink from carpet?

• HP suggests you immediately rinse the stained fabric with cold water. Cold water is your best buddy when it comes to ink stain removal from fabrics including removing printer ink from carpet. Warm or hot water will “set” the color into the fabric.
• If ink spills on white fabric, use chlorine bleach and cold water to remove the stain.
• Can’t use bleach? Use a pre-treatment solution consisting of two tablespoons of liquid detergent, three tablespoons of white vinegar, and one quart of warm water.
• If ink spills on a colored fabric, use sudsy ammonia—a dilute mixture of detergent and ammonia—and cold water. Act quickly and test on a hidden area first.

How to Remove Toner from Fabric?

Lifting toner stains from carpet and fabrics is similar to removing toner stains from clothing.

Toner on carpet can be especially challenging if it gets stepped on and ground in.

However, all hope is not lost.

1. It’s important to lift toner spills immediately off fabrics. A vacuum is the tool to use here. Be careful, however, because charged toner particles can short circuit household vacuums. If you find yourself cleaning up a lot of spilled toner, consider investing in a toner vacuum.
2. Position the vacuum nozzle directly over the stain and try to lift the excess toner up and out. Don’t rub that toner in!
3. Once you’ve removed all the loose toner particles, it’s time to attack that stain with wet cleaning solutions. You can use cotton balls and rubbing alcohol, or make a solution combining one teaspoon of oxygen bleach and one teaspoon of dish soap in a half-gallon of cold water.
4. Next, lightly rub or blot the wet carpet stain. We like using paper towels for this step instead of a cloth or rag. Paper towels can be discarded and replaced, while a cloth can spread your stain to another location.
5. Allow the carpet to dry and repeat. If a stubborn stain remains, you may want to opt for a professional carpet cleaning.

Ditch Ink, Embrace Toner

Why is that ink cartridge leaking anyway? Who knows?

You just want to get your hands and clothes clean.

Using the methods outlined above, you can successfully accomplish both tasks the next time you encounter spilled ink.

Just remember — bleach and ammonia don’t mix! Toxic!

Ultimately, you should kick that inkjet to the curb and treat yourself to a laser printer.

It’ll last longer, run cheaper, and won’t leave you with dreaded ink fingers.

Plus, you can sell off your unused, unexpired ink here!