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How to Clean Gel Ink Stains from Clothing

How to Remove Gel Ink Stains from Clothing

Many of you have probably read my post on how to Remove Ink Stains but in response to that post a reader asked me how to clean gel ink stains from clothing, because using hairspray won’t remove gel stains.

I had to do a little research for this post because I don’t use gel ink pens so I have never received a stain from one.  Luckily I was able to find a great answer for you!  You know I’ve been trying to do more Green Cleaning so I was excited to find a stain solution using alcohol and vinegar {source}.

Here’s what you do:

Step 1: Mix 1 cup rubbing alcohol with 1 cup vinegar.  Then using a clean cloth, dip it into the alcohol vinegar mixture and then wet the stain with it.  Let the mixture sit on the stain for no less than 5 minutes.

Step 2: Next pour a small amount of table salt onto the soaking stain.  Allow the salt to sit on the stain for another 5 minutes.

Step 3: After the 10 minutes of soaking the garment with alcohol, vinegar and salt, use a toothbrush to gently scrub the stain.

Step 4: After scrubbing the stain with the toothbrush rinse it with hot water.  Rinse until you see the stain lift and then use a clean cloth to dab it dry.  If the stain doesn’t completely lift on the first attempt repeat the steps until it is completely gone.

Step 5: Allow the garment to air dry after removing the stain and then wash it in the washing machine just like you normally would.

Voila!  Now you have an ink-free shirt {or pants} to wear to work tomorrow!

NOTE:

I’ve had many of you comment that this didn’t work for you, which is strange because I know it has worked for others, but if it didn’t work I have something else you can try. I had a reader email me and tell me that Simple Green works great. Here’s what he said,

I have found the chemicals in the cleaner Simple Green will remove most (if not all) of the gel ink from clothes. If the amount of the ink or the delay time to removal aren’t on your side it will definitely get you started. It loosens and liquefies the ink to be blotted away.”

So if the rubbing alcohol and vinegar didn’t work give Simple Green a try and let me know how it goes! 🙂

About Anna

"Hi, I'm Anna! Wife, mother, child of God, and the founder of Ask Anna. I have always enjoyed cleaning, organizing, decorating and helping people, so I've put that all together on the pages of this blog. I truly hope my tips help you in your home and make sure to contact me if you have a question!"

Comments

    • Thom says

      I first tried hand sanitizer with some dawn and scrubed with a tooth brush. It didn’t work to well. So I moved on. I poored denatured alcohol it and dawn, put a paper towel under the stain and srubbed with a toothbrush. You’ll have to move the paper towel around as it will soak up the ink. Scrub away and repeat with the DA and Dawn. I took me about 15-20 minutes of scrubbing. I then washed it with detergent and added about 1/2 cup denatured alcohol to the (front loader) washer.

  2. Terri Sue says

    Dear Anna,
    Thank you so much! I wrote you that that hairspray wouldn’t take out gel ink. It’s just about all that I use. I love that I now have a way to get out the occasional stain. Thank you for your research.

  3. Lori says

    Thanks for posting this! I wish I had seen it about a week sooner! DH got gel ink on a 100% polyester shirt. I tried EVERYTHING and only was able to fade it a bit. Plus now the fabric is worn in the 1″ spot around the stain! Too much scrubbing!!

    • JenK says

      This worked on an untreated stain! I tried it on a stain I’d previously tried only alcohol and it wasn’t working. I saw somewhere else to scrub with powdered detergent and then it came out! Relieved and thankful!

  4. Melodie says

    I read your post last night after finding 7 of my husband’s shirts covered in gel ink. . .after they had been through the dryer. I knew I had a long night ahead of me. Let me just say, I gave up and put all of the shirts in the wash with extra water. I then put 1 c. alcohol (all I had left after dabbing one shirt), 2 c. vinegar, and 1/2 c. oxyclean in the washer. I let it go and waited for the washer to finish. Everything came out SPOTLESS! Thanks for the inspiration!

    • Jen K says

      Thank you for adding this comment! I had a similar situation, and it worked! I have a front loader, so I presoaked in a bucket overnight with 1 c alcohol, 2 c vinegar and a scoop of Oxyclean and enough water to cover it all. The next day I wasn’t sure it worked, it lightened the stain on some, but not all and some had huge spots of ink. I ran it through a normal wash( I use homemade detergent), with some bleach (these were whites) and you can’t tell where any ink was!!! Major happy dance.

  5. J says

    Thanks for the information on gel ink removal. My daughter left gel pen in her scrub top pocket which then bleed onto her scrub pants. Didn’t realize it was “gel ink” at first so treated with hairspray! Next, we tried your alcohol, vinegar & salt solution, but it didn’t work 🙁 I washed her scrubs this morning and that nasty gel ink is still there 🙁 I may try Melodie’s idea of putting alcohol, vinegar & oxy clean and re-washing them by themselves. If anyone else has any ideas, I welcome them! Thanks so much!

  6. Mckenzie Hawthorne says

    Hi,
    I got a gel ink stain on my jeans. I didn’t realize that it was gel ink, so i first tried hairspray which didn’t work. Will this treatment work on jeans? And also, will it work if I have already tried hairspray? I haven’t dried the jeans yet. Thanks!

    • Harkirat says

      This worked like magic on my son’s gel ink stained new white school shirt. There were 3 big spots.

      Soaking in milk worked the wonder within minutes. The stains have vanished…

      Will wash it normally in machine now and voila the shirt would be spotlessly clean.

      (Forgot to take the before and after pictures due to the stress of loosing the shirt)

  8. veronica says

    Hi Anna,
    Thank you for this very helpful tip! Will be using today on hubby’s favorite shirt. 🙂

    Just a note on your page: (Being very ancient and a bear with very little eyesight left)
    I wonder if it would be possible to use a darker font on your text? I’d love to follow you, I can tell you have wonderful ideas! I really wanted this tip so I copied and pasted it to Word, and formatted it so I could read it. I’m going by faith that I’m typing the correct words because I really can’t see them! I totally understand the need to have a creative looking page, I’m sure that’s why so many bloggers use this light, airy color but it really is murder on old eyes like mine 🙂 Thanks for listening. Keep up the good work!
    P.S. I don’t have a website so I used yours. Hope that’s okay. Don’t think it would let me post otherwise…

    • Kathy says

      You can also use Control + to make the font larger, hence it gets darker! I have trouble seeing too.

  9. Cathy says

    I tried this 3 times on a Pilot G2 pen gel ink stain with no luck! Any other suggestions? Thank you.

    • Vickie says

      If you stained whites, spray with chlorox cleaner. Let air dry. May have to do more than once but has worked for me.

    • Shanon Jacobs says

      Same pen for us. Alcohol didnt work. Now soaking in milk. All my son’s brand new carhardt work clothes that he just got for himself 🙁

  10. Linda says

    Thank you for your information about the gel ink stain. I had soaked it in milk and put in the washer on delicate, and when it comes out I will let it air dry and try your tips tomorrow if the stain is not removed. Please tell me how to get asphalt tar patch out of a white cotton tee shirt.

    Thank you for sharing your faith. Our God is awesome and incredible and an ever-present help. May God abundantly bless you and your family and supply every need you have and your heart’s desires.

    • Anna says

      Thank you Linda! As for the asphalt tar, unfortunately I have not tips for that one. :/ I don’t even know where I’d start, sorry.

    • Pat Morris says

      Clean it with disiel. Also, this Anna’s tip didn’t work for my Pilot gel pen stands on 99% cotton.

      • Foa says

        White hand cleaner called goop I’ve ised on pitch n gum road I’m cat w child asleep on my lap from la w him between us got it out

    • Katrina says

      Goo Gone might work on the tar as well, I have gotten a lot of other nasty sticky stuff out of clothes and carpet with it. Anything is worth a try if you aren’t wanting to pitch or re-purpose the article.

  11. Teresa Novak says

    UNBELIEVABLE! Thought there was no way this would work on a set-in, gel ink stain from the pen left in the pocket of my white lab coat and going through wash and dry cycles. I nearly threw the coat away, but to save $40 I thought it was worth a try, for less than 50 cents of materials.. No one who saw the coat before can believe it’s the same one. The ink stain is completely gone.! Thanks so much for the great tip!

  12. Lilnda says

    help! i got black permanent marker on my favorite green T shirt. Can it be removed/
    Love your site!
    thanks,
    Linda

  14. Lisa says

    I had a whole load of khaki pants of my sons. He has left pens in his pants many times. I was sick today and did not want to go thru the pockets and now Im paying for it. Gel ink everywhere. I am trying the cup of alcohol, 2 cups of vinegar and cup of All with oxyclean. Hope it works. No, I have been praying it works. I don’t think its too much to ask for a little help from the Lord on this. I can’t afford to replace all his school clothes. He goes to a private school that requires khakis. This is four pair of them along with 3 pair of jeans. I will try the jeans later. Not too worried about them cause it doesn’t show. Say a prayer for me too. Thanks for the suggestions. I was worried sick.

  15. smrichy says

    This recipe does not work on gel ink on cotton fabric.
    A simple acetone or fingernail polish remover works fine and is safe on most fabrics as long as you get to it before it is set by heat.

  16. Nancy says

    Will sea salt work instead of table salt? I don’t use regular table salt but I can buy some if the sea salt won’t work.

  17. Michael says

    Tried it twice on a white cotton dress shirt that went through the laundry once. Didn’t even slightly fade it. Going to try the Oxy Clean suggestion and will report back.
    Thank you for the suggestions.

  18. Kim says

    This process doesn’t work for permanent gel pins. Please list any other solutions you can come up with.

  19. Kathy says

    Hi there! I tried this several times on a gel stain on my son’s new shorts. No go. Didn’t work at all. Just an FYI
    Thanks!!

  21. Jenny says

    what if it is the entire shirt! I had a gel pen get washed in the washer and is all over my shirt. How would I get it out?

    • Anna says

      Oh no! Honestly at that point I would probably just take it to a professional, if it’s a shirt you really love. If you want to try it at home then I’d soak the whole shirt in vinegar in the sink, instead of spot cleaning like the posts suggests. Good luck!

  22. sheri says

    How do you remove a gel ink stain front clothes that are wet from being in the washer.?. There was a gel pen washed with the load of whites. Didn’t get on everything , just two pieces it laid on
    Thank you

    • mreynolds says

      Hey Sheri,

      This is Monique, Anna’s assistant. Since the ink has already gone through the washer it might help to let it air dry. I would not put it in the dryer until after you have treated it. Once it has air dried you can go ahead and begin the process that was suggested in the post. Glad that it only got on two pieces 🙂 Hope this helps!

  23. Coral says

    So far…not so good. Have been working on my son’s 15 pieces of whites and one yellow with no great result so far. Have everything in a bucket with the alcohol and water for the night and will try to see what happens in the morning. There are too many pieces with too much ink on them to be able to do each piece separately. I hope it works in the morning.

  25. Saul Gersen says

    Sorry, it didn’t work for me. I tried it on a white, Pima cotton shirt, a pair of denim shorts, and a pair of cotton shorts. Does the length of time that the stain sits before attempting removal affect the ability to get the stain out?

    • Bethany Davis says

      Hello, Saul.
      I’m Anna’s assistant, Bethany. I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work on your clothing. Just to clarify, did you try one time for each article of clothing, or did you try and repeat the process on each with no luck? If not, you may want to try and repeat the process this time, but soak the stain for a bit longer to see if helps, before attempting to put the salt on. Anna’s source also mentions another method for cleaning gel ink stains which you can find here: http://www.ehow.com/how_6110046_gel-ink-out-clothes.html. I hope this helps!

    • Anna says

      The vinegar won’t take the color out, it’s actually good at preventing color bleeding, but I can’t promise that for the rubbing alcohol. I would start by trying it on an inside pocket or someplace not very noticeable.

  27. Christine says

    Thank you! I bought my daughter a new light blue bed comforter and the next day her cousin left an uncapped red gel pen on it. She was devastated. This worked beautifully. I really didn’t think we would get it out but we did, thanks to your instructions.

  28. anton says

    thanks!
    i had a small gel-ink stain on my polyester shirt.
    rubbing the vinegar/isopropyl alcohol alone did the trick!

    • Pam Starkey says

      I had just bought a beautiful off white polyester throw. I accidentally drop a Zebra Z grip black pen on it and it left two black ink marks on it. I read a post on your site about someone who got ink on a polyester skirt. She said she tried the Alcohol/Vinegar solution and it removed the ink stain. I felt I had nothing to lose, so I took a cotton ball, soaked it with Vinegar/Alcohol and dabbed in on the stain with a towel underneath. I WAS TOTALLY AMAZED. Three cotton balls later the ink is COMPLETELY GONE! Thank you for this wonderful tip!

  29. bj says

    It worked! Thank you so much? my husband washed & dried his 2 favorite dress shirts with a gel pin hidden in a pocket…. one was a very expensive shirt from Orvis. Thought we were going to have t o throw them away. A little patience, repeating this recipe 3 or 4 times and the MANY MANY stains were gone. Make sure you have a thick white towel on the bottom to catch all the ink, it will transfer to whatever is there (if on a sleeve, roll up a dish towel and slide it in). Can’t thank you enough!

  30. Jami says

    Would you use the same process if it’s dried in your couch fabric? I have a large ink stain in my brand new couch. I’m guessing the fabric is mostly cotton – not microfiber and I’ve tried everything. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it was there until it was dry. Thanks for your help.

    • Anna says

      It’s definitely worth a try! The other thing I use to get stains off my floor/furniture is Woolite Pet+Oxi, it’s magic stuff! 🙂

      • Jami says

        Would you spray both the woolite pet and oxi directly on the stain and let it soak and dab at it?

  31. Beth says

    This didn’t work for me at all. Lifted the stain only slightly. Had to take to dry cleaners. They said the alcohol caused the gel ink to set in. He’s worked on it for a week! Not sure if it will come out now.

  32. kerry says

    My husband had already tried to remove the stain using bleach, as it is a white shirt that was ok but I think the stain may now be set into the fabric

  33. Boo Soon Yew says

    Thanks Anna for your tip !! Will put it to the test now with my precious pink cotton shirt stained with blue gel ink.
    Will let you know the outcome soon and post on Pinterest 🙂

  34. April says

    I was amazed that this worked! I didn’t take a before picture as I didn’t think anything was going to get this out, but amazingly I was able to save two scout shirts that I thought were completely ruined. Thank you for your post!!!

  35. Holly Stansberry says

    Hi, I read your blog and the comments a week ago and cutting to the chase, your suggestion helped a little, but not much, soaked and refreshed and soaked some more. My miracle for that particular ink was Pine-Sol.

    My son took a new salmon-colored T-shirt out of the dryer and it had gel pen ink all over one sleeve, 75% covered, plus spots on the rest of the shirt, the other new shirts, new work pants and new heavy white cotton shorts. It was a small load and most of the clothes had never been worn. I tried the alcohol, vinegar, salt solution and it took some out, but not a lot. Yes, bleach didn’t do anything on the white shorts. I tried a couple other things, like peroxide and baking soda on the salmon shirt, not any significant difference. However, looking through my cleaning products, I spied a new bottle of Pine-Sol my husband had bought several weeks ago for some cleaning. I remembered that over 25 years ago when I was still doing technical pen and ink drawings for engineering drawings (before CAD/Computer-Aided Design), in desperation, I tried Pine-Sol on a couple spots of ink I got on my clothes. It was the only thing that took the standard black drawing ink, I think acrylic based, out of my clothes. So I tried it on the white shorts, dabbed/dripped it straight on the spots on the dry fabric, rubbed together, more Pine-Sol and rubbing a couple times and the spots disappeared. It took a while, but got those shorts white. It worked on the spots on the other clothing that the ink showed on, except the salmon colored shirt. It helped, but I think that thing had too many other treatments done before the Pine-Sol. It’s going to be the dirty job/rag shirt. I was worried the Pine-Sol formula might have changed, but it still did the work. Yesterday, I also used the Pine-Sol on a new shirt my husband wore to assemble a tool chest he got for Father’s Day and got black grease on it in several places.

  36. Jarle says

    Have you tried Vademecum mouthwash? It does not harm clothing or color. Wash in pure water afterwards.

  37. Glenn says

    Totally worked for me! 100% cotton shirt, pure white color with very delicate knitting. Pilot G-2 gel pen, blue. Now it’s like it never happened. Thank you Anna!
    (The only thing is, I left it sit for 35 minutes sitting in the mix… unintentionally)

  38. PJ says

    My wife used oxyclean concentrated gel. Rubbed the stain for a few minutes and let sit for an hour. Then ran it through a normal wash cycle and no evidence of stain. The ink was on the pants (97% cotton, 3% elastene) for 2-3 days.

  39. mike says

    worked perfectly getting SARSA Zebra .7 pen ink out of our white linen couch cover!

    i treated about 10 times over the course of an evening – reapplying the solution, dabbing and working the salt in. each time the stain went down about half until no linger noticeable. in the wash now and good as new.

    thank you 🙂

  40. Chris Luedtke says

    I used your method but in addition I bought a product at Wal-Mart called grandmas secret laundry stain remover. Spray on, leave on 5-10 minutes, no scrubbing! Every thing came out!!

  41. Gillian Warren says

    Thank you for this tip. Something I’ve found useful to remove ink, (gel and ball point) is pure glycerine. The stuff you might use in cake decorating or for a cough when you don’t want to use drugs. You can get it at the drug store or often in craft shops. It’s a brilliant solvent.
    I usually pour a bit on, then rub very gently and leave it for about half an hour, then wash normally.

  42. Elisabeth says

    Be careful! Check the website of the pen manufacturer before doing anything! I tried this and it didn’t work. Tried Simple Green and it didn’t work. Went to the Pilot Pen website. They recommend Avodex and two other products. Avodex says don’t wet the material and don’t ever use alcohol because it will set the stain.

  43. JohnK says

    This worked on khaki pants with major stain….after drying. Also on some lighter shirts that didn’t go into dryer. TIP: Wear gloves while doing this with a large stain…looking a little Smurfy now.

  44. Bill says

    Tried on synthetic fabric cargo pants. Did no do anything. The ink was from a Pilot gel pen and my previous experience was that this is extremely difficult to remove from fabric. I’ll check with the manufacturer.

  45. deb chouinard says

    Hi I used a studio gel pen instead of a Frixion pen on a project I was working on. Tried the oxyclean vinegar and alcohol route. Got about 50% out. Tried Javex to no available. Tried milk and 25% of the stain lifted in about 10 minutes. Desperate and figured the item was ruined so I tried Head and Shoulders shampoo. Let it sit for 20 minutes, Rinsed and it was gone. It is now drying but looks good. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think the difference in results is due to the different ink formulas.

  46. Wade says

    Let me say first, I’m very skeptical about all home remedies.
    Neon yellow work shirt. Gel pen popped this morning in my pocket. So, it was definitely dry 8 hours later. I made the alcohol/ vinegar mix. After a few minutes of soaking , the mixture turned black. Poured the salt on and scrubbed it gently with my finger. Toothbrush and running hot water, it was just gone. No trace in less than 10 minutes. Absolutely amazed.