<p>While traveling, H sent some clothes to be cleaned by the hotel’s laundry, and two shirts and a pair of pants came back with ink stains. The hotel re-washed, and supposedly some of the ink came out, but nowhere near completely. </p>
<p>I recall that hairspray is supposed to work on ink stains, but a quick google search suggests that I might be better off with plain rubbing alcohol. Or is there a product (that works) that is specifically designed to take out ink stains?</p>
<p>Not sure if it will work once it has been dried, but hairspray usually works on ball point ink. Be sure to put the stain side down against an absorbent cloth and wash the stain out the way it came in, not all the way through the fabric</p>
<p>I have always found aerosol hairspray to work the best on ball point ink; doesn’t seem to work on the roller ball pens that my husband uses 
I have tried alcohol, but hairspray just works better; maybe it is the aerosol. </p>
<p>If the clothes have been through the dryer, the ink might be set in.</p>
<p>I use 90% strength alcohol on ink and hairpray. If it has been dried at high heat, nothing will get it out completely. My dh left a pen in our clothes recently and I got most of it out but not all. I have the best success if it is caught before washing and it still works even once they been washed but have not dried.</p>
<p>We didn’t have a couch in our living room for the first four years we were in our house. When we were finally able to afford one, we got a beautiful, brown suede-ish (don’t know what you call it), L-shaped sofa. </p>
<p>A couple of weeks after we’d bought it, my two-year-old daughter decided to “decorate” it with a ballpoint pen. To make matters worse, it was one that DH had given her as a souvenir from a trip. He was mad at her and madder at himself! Our five-year-old son piped up and said, “Maybe now would be a good time to pray?” So we did! I got out the hairspray and tested it on some of the marks on the back of the couch. It worked!! Then I got rid of all of the visible marks. It sure did feel like a miracle.</p>
<p>If these tricks don’t work, I take them to a high quality laundry/dry cleaner–they have a lot of stain removal tricks up their sleeves. Then send the bill to the hotel!</p>
<p>I’ve had good luck with glycerin on ball point ink stains … and mediocre luck with stain removers bought at the grocery store. I’m certain YMMV.</p>
<p>PS, DW swears by acetone, but it’s not readily available to most people.</p>
<p>Fresh bottle of rubbing alcohol with high content.</p>
<p>Pour some in bowl.</p>
<p>put ink stained area in bowl and soak for awhile. </p>
<p>It will look worse before it looks better.</p>
<p>Repeat.</p>
<p>Gently rub in some Tide. </p>
<p>Wash but do not dry. If stain is still there, repeat.</p>
<p>Air dry and then look at it again to make sure.</p>
<p>Resolve spray in the GREEN bottle will help get out any residual stains.</p>
<p>I broke a pen on the carpet once and found on the internet, a mixture of Oxi-Clean, alcohol and water to use to clean it. At first, it looked like it might have bleached the spots on the carpet, but once dried and vacuumed, the carpet looked good. Not sure of the mixture, but I’m certain I used too much Oxi-Clean (hence the white looking spot residue left behind).</p>
<p>My dog chewed a pen apart on my oriental rug. Nail polish remover did the trick (with acetone).</p>
<p>Gylcerin works wonders. I got some printers ink (from the cans of ink that are loaded into a printing press) on clothes years ago, and it took it all out.</p>
<p>I get good results with pines sol. Consistency reminds me of glycerIn. Wonder if that’s why it works.</p>
<p>We’ve had a few bad ink accidents at our house and have done well with plain rubbing alcohol. My son had a roller ball pen in his pocket when his pants went into a full load of wash. Ink went everywhere and covered every single pair of his school khakis. I was determined not to lose all those pants so my husband went to the store for bottles and bottles of rubbing alcohol. It took the whole weekend but all of the ink came out. Alcohol also worked when the dog chewed a pen on our ivory carpet. </p>
<p>There is a product called Amodex made specifically for ink removal. I haven’t used it myself but heard good things about it on Martha Stewart’s radio show.</p>
<p>* Ink went everywhere and covered every single pair of his school khakis.*</p>
<p>It’s from years of that same experience that got me to my system in post #8. I routinely bought the double packs of high alcohol content rubbing alcohol from Sams Club. Saved many a school uniform khaki pant!!!</p>
<p>Sometimes the soakings would go for 24hrs followed by re-soakings. And, using Resolve (green bottle) and OxyClean (hot water!) to get rid of any residual staining. I’ve used that system even when the ink has gone thru the dryer.</p>