What to Do?!

I wanted to photocopy some papers using a printer I no longer use. I knew there was black ink in the cartridge, but the machine directed me to replace the cartridge, I had no new cartridge, so took the old one out and shook it a few times before replacing it - a trick I learned when using laser printers at work.

I was on the verge of putting the cartridge back into the printer when I noticed that it was oozing toner all over my hand... 

What to do?! I grabbed some paper towel to sop up the wet ink. Then I ran to get a plastic bags to put the leaky cartridge in before disposing of it.

Then I looked at my hands - stained with black ink. How to clean them?!

Google directed me to several articles on how to remove printer ink from hands. I planned to try as many as it took to get rid of black stains. Apparently Windex might have worked if the ink was still wet - which it wasn't!

A pumice stone did remove a small amount of ink. But I didn't want to further damage my already-dry skin by rubbing too long.

Next I rubbed my hands with a cloth soaked with a few drops of tea tree oil. More ink came off. 

Baby oil or vaseline might also help, according to another article.

They all seem to help... some - but my hand looked so dirty that Terry didn't want me in the kitchen.

Here's my hand 12 hours later ... 

At first I thought it might take a few days to completely disappear - but... to my amazement .... another 12 hours and my hand was completely clean! Was it the many liquid soaps in my regular hand washing at home, in the mall and in the gym that did the job?!