Has this, or something similar, ever happened to you?
You put on a nice, fresh shirt and head out the door. When you arrive and are chatting with friends or colleagues, someone points at your shirt and asks, “What’s that?” You look down, and a small blue or black spot is starting to grow. That’s right — the ink pen in your pocket is leaking.
Or perhaps you simply touched an ink pen to your shirt and the ink transferred. It’s small, but everyone sees it.
This type of stain doesn’t just wipe off. It takes real effort to remove an ink stain, and if you don’t do it right, you will just make it worse. Ink spreads and migrates outward, creating a bigger stain as you work on it.
Here are some tips to make ink stain removal a little easier. But remember, this isn’t typical cleaning — it’s aggressive, so there is always a chance of damaging the fabric.
- Hair spray: Using an alcohol-based aerosol, apply liberally to the stain. Work it in and dab at it with a white paper towel. Hair spray sometimes works because the alcohol disperses some inks. Wash immediately.
- Acetone: The ingredient in traditional nail polish remover, acetone is a very dry solvent that works on ink. When you saturate the stain it will dissolve and migrate, so work from the outside in to limit spreading. Other dry solvents, such as rubbing alcohol, can also be used. Wash immediately after.
- Detergent treatment: Apply a laundry pre-treat product liberally, work it in from the outside in, and then wash immediately.
No matter which treatment you use, washing the garment will help remove more of the ink. Wash it separately, and do not dry the garment until you are satisfied with the results — once it’s been through the dryer, removing more of the stain is often futile.
And remember that true fabric cleaning experts know how to remove ink stains. When you have a challenging cleaning situation, call a pro. After all, it pays to call a pro!
