It’s midnight, you’re working on a project for work or school and while you are changing your printer cartridge it spills. It’s all over you. You’re filled with panic! What are you going to do? If you have ever had to change a toner or ink cartridge, chances are you have had the misfortune of getting toner or ink on your hands. Well don’t panic. This post will share some easy remedies for you with items that should be readily accessible to you at your office or home. December 3, 2014 UPDATE! We found a product that easily takes inkjet ink off your hands with little effort and is not harmful to your skin. It’s listed as NUMBER 1.
- Tea Tree Oil – while you may not have this in your home or office, this all natural product works wonders. Put a few drops on a clean dry cloth and scrub on the affected area. If it doesn’t remove all the ink immediately, you may need to repeat or use a fingernail brush to scrub the crevices of your skin. Repeat until all the ink has been removed. I have tested this with Epson brand inkjet ink and it worked like a charm on ink that had dried on my hands. Tea Tree Oil has many uses (including removing Sharpie brand permanent marker from your skin and other surfaces). It does have a strong distinctive odor, so you may want to use in a well ventilated area. Not because it will harm you, but because you may not like the way it smells.
- Rubbing alcohol. Almost every home has some lying around somewhere. Be sure to use lotion when you get all the toner or ink off because it will dry out your skin.
- Glass Cleaner. Any home or office should have a bottle of window cleaner available. Don’t let the ink dry. The key is to spray it on as soon as possible to the affected area then wipe with a paper towel BEFORE the ink dries.
- Spray hairspray on the affected areas, let it sit while it dissolves the toner or ink; then wash it off.
- Baby oil. The oily texture breaks up the toner or ink stains and leaves your skin baby soft.
- Nail polish remover – be careful with this one if you are removing toner or ink from anything other than your skin as it will remove the finish from furniture, etc… Also – USE IN WELL VENTILATED AREA.
- While this remedy may be hard on your skin, it will work. Soft Scrub with bleach with cool water. Rub the granulated paste over the affected area and repeat. Be sure to use lotion when you get all the toner or ink off because it will dry out your skin.
- Bleach. Mix 10 parts water to 1 part bleach. Rub with cloth until the stain is gone. Wash thoroughly with soap and water when you’re done. To remove the bleach smell you can squeeze a lemon or an orange. Please note bleach is a caustic substance and should be used with caution.
- If you don’t mind going out, get a product called GoJo. This is a hand cleaner used primarily for grease, but has also been noted as being a good product for ink and can be found at a home repair store.
- Goop hand cleaner is another great product that will remove some toners or inks. This can be found at a home discount store.
If one of these remedies worked for you, let us know. We’d like to hear your story. If you have a remedy we didn’t post, let us know about that too!
Gojo did NOT WORK NOR DID hairspray. Bleach for the most part weather it bleached my skin or dissolved the ink i cant tell but either way my hands were cleaner and back to normal.
Thanks for letting us know your results Shai… do you mind me asking – which printer toner/ink were you using?
I used warm water and Arm and Hammer laundry detergent with OxiClean and it did a good job and was mild. Hands kind of felt slippery after but not too bad. Key is next time use gloves when filling ink cartridges!
I was putting in new ink cartridges in when ink got all over both of my hands. I tried many of the ways described above to get it off and nothing happened. So I used a combination of one of the articles that I had read. I used a very soft Brillo type of sponge and some Comet with bleach and water and began to rub it against my fingers and to my amazement the ink began to come off of my hands. I got all of the ink off in less than a few minutes. I washed my hands then I used a finger nail file to get the ink that went under my nails. I then put lotion on my hands and after looking at my hands you would not even know that I hand ink on my hands at all.
Hi Patricia! Thanks so much for sharing what worked for you! Could you share what brand the ink was and the make and model of the printer so we can update our files?
Last night I filled my Epson printer up and got ink all over my hands . I used Milton and nail brush to get the ink of . it got most it of . I use Milton because its save for baby’s bottles when you sterilize them I use Milton for most things . it don’t burn your skin .
Thanks so much for sharing your story Angela. I’ve never heard of Milton, but will definitely have to check it out! 🙂
I used a pumice stone, the one I use on my feet. It worked pretty well. might not have any fingerprints for a while, haha.
Hmmmm Martha – not sure I would want to rub all my skin off just to remove some ink. Whatever works for you! lol 🙂
I just refilled my HP ink cartridges with a refill kit bought at Walgreens. I REALLY should have used gloves! Needless to say my hands ended up looking like I was an artist. I tried the tea tree oil and the baby oil and those did not work. What finally worked was GoJo and the rough side of a sponge. My nails still have a trace of the black ink, but my skin has no trace of the ink. I have also put on some more baby oil on my hands afterwards, because they felt really dry after all the scrubbing. Thanks for sharing these ideas!
The ink was all in my fingerprints so I first washed with regular soap, used some windex (which got out a lot of the ink on the very surface of my fingers), then used a Mr. Clean magic eraser to scrub. This got probably 95% of the ink off my fingers–all that’s left really is some in the very deep crevices of my fingerprints. Mr. Clean worked the best for me.
i used Clorox Clean -Up Spray with bleach sprayed on fingers scrubbed with Mr Clean Magic Eraser rinsed with warm water dried then put hand cream on. Worked like a charm
I used a combination of Comet and mineral oil. I rubbed with mineral oil, washed with soap, rinsed, scrubbed with comet, rinsed, rubbed with mineral oil, repeated. I didn’t want to try bleach, but I tried everything else on the list first and nothing worked.
Used the bleach it worked perfectly
Pumice stone with any soap works like a charm and you don’t have to rub hard 🙂
Repairing my printer, i had to tear it down completely. My printer, a Brother MFC-5860CN has a foam pad on one side of the print platen that was just soaked with ink. Removing this made such a mess. I used an institutional toilet and tile cleaner (Kay Restroom Cleaner)that contains bleach. This worked wonders.
That sounds like quite a chore Dakota. Thanks for sharing your story!
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
While bleach does work, it can be harmful to your skin when used full-strength. You also want to take extra care not to let it splash into your eyes.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thanks for sharing what worked for you Brooke!
Thanks for sharing!
All I used was some dish soap and warm water and scrubbed it off my hands just using my nails but not hard and it worked perfectly its all off
It was Ajax dish detergent pretty sure from dollar tree
Tried all of the above with minimal success. Ink had dried on my hands for about an hour.
Went to the basement and used some Spray 9 cleaner. Ink disappeared almost immediately.
That’s great – glad it worked out for you!
Thanks for sharing – we’ll have to give it a try!
I just put a few drops of straight bleach on the affected fingers and the ink literally disappeared. I then washed my hands throughly with some soap and water and then put some cuticle oil on my nails to soften them up.
Dishwashing Liquid works like a charm. Moisturise afterwards
Brooke is right! The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is amazing! I tried a few things, but that’s what worked for me!