WFMW—Alcohol Removes Ink on Skin

I don’t know about your family, but my kids from time to time like to tattoo themselves with ballpoint ink. Short of scrubbing them raw with a rough washcloth, I found it nearly impossible to remove it, and it would take days and several baths for it to finally fade away.

One day I happened to observe Firstborn using some hand-sanitizer, and was surprised to see his current skin art disappear like magic. Aha! Hand sanitizer is mostly alcohol! I had heard of using rubbing alcohol to remove ballpoint ink on clothing, but never had much success with it (I use hairspray). I guess that’s why it never occurred to me to use it on skin.

I tested it out on one of the kids, and it worked like a charm. Just soak a cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and wipe the ink right off.

A few days later, coincidentally, I had an encounter with a broken ballpoint pen, and had Craig snap a picture in anticipation of this post.

This, admittedly, was tougher than a simple doodle. I washed off what I could; a lot of blue water went down the drain, but it didn't seem to have much effect on how much ink was left on my skin. Then I sat down in front of the TV with a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol. CSI kept me occupied while I worked at the ink. Not bad. You can still see some ink under my fingernails (and it just occurred to me that this may not be very convincing since it’s not the same view of my yikes! old lady hand). But I know that soap and water would not have done this well.

Earth shattering? No. But I hope it helps someone next time little Buford decides to decorate himself, on purpose or not.

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