(2523) [2] Extracting India Ink.

Manufacturer and builder 7, 1879

It is very difficult, and often impossible, to extract carbon when it is deeply imbedded beneath the skin, as is the case with gunpowder when driven into the pores by an explosion. The colors inserted by tattooing also remain during life. When the India ink, gunpowder, or charcoal dust is only epiderm, it will in the course of time wear off; but when it has penetrated into the true skin under the epiderm, it is fixed, and can never be obliterated. Chemists, whose hands often become blackened by carbon or charcoal dyst, oil their hands and then wash with soap and water. This is about the best and only way to remove carbon, in case it is possible to remove it. The oil softens the skin and affords a change for the carbon to leave the pores, especially if a stiff brush is used when washing.