How to Wash Inky Fingers Clean

Anyone who uses fountain pens has likely experienced a bit of ink your hands at some point - it kind of just goes with the territory, especially if you're using ink from a bottle, rather than cartridges.

The best thing you can do is act quickly! The faster you get water and soap on your hands, the better. If you know you are going to be doing inky work, and want to avoid inky hands, it's best to wear gloves. After that, you can consider keeping a damp towel nearby to wipe your fingers as you go to limit the damage. If you do end up with ink, here are some strategies you can try to getting ink off: 1. Hot soap and water! Usually gets most inks off with some pretty good success. 2. Toothpaste and a brush. Put a little bit on a nail brush, or even your fingers and rub. A nail brush will be better because it will act as a bit of an abrasive to rubbing off the ink. 3. Windex - the ammonia in the Windex is also the same ingredient in pen flushes that helps dissolve the dyes to get them flowing. Spray, rub, rinse well. 4. Pumice stone, available at most Shoppers or pharmacies. Pumice stones are also used in manicures and pedicures to wear down and soften calluses on your skin, so by rubbing the stone on the stained skin, you're taking off the top layer. You can also try emory boards. Be gentle! 5. If you don't have a pumice stone, you can try mixing a bit of sugar with some dish or hand soap, and that will rub away at the ink on your skin. 6. Rubbing alcohol on a cotton pad or using Hand Sanitizer that uses alcohol-based ingredients, this will also give you peace of mind that your hands will be germ-free afterward. The alcohol can be quite drying, so be sure to moisturize after. 7. Usually the length of a shower, with the hot water and soap and shampoo gets most stains off. Even though I get ink on my hands almost every day, just by helping people with their pens or playing around with inks, every day is a different mix because it washes off in the shower. Try one or try all, and let me know how it goes! Otherwise, you can just embrace the ink on your hands and pretend you're an artist.