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"Indian ink" redirects here. For the play by Tom Stoppard, see Indian Ink (play)
Indian Ink (play)

Indian Ink is a 1995 in literature#New drama Play by Tom Stoppard, based on his 1991 radio play In the Native State. Indian Ink had its first performance at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on February 27, 1995....
.
India ink (or Indian ink in British English
British English

British English or UK English is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere....
), or less commonly called Chinese ink since it may have been first developed in either India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 or China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, is a simple black ink
Ink

An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
 once widely used for writing and printing, and now more commonly used for drawing
Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
, especially when inking comics
Comics

Comics is a graphic Mass media in which are utilized in order to convey a sequential narrative; the term, derived from massive early use to convey comic themes, came to be applied to all uses of this medium including those which are far from comic....
 and comic strips. Indian ink generally will readily clog fountain pen
Fountain pen

A fountain pen is a pen that contains a reservoir of water-based liquid Fountain pen inks. If it uses ink cartridges instead of having a built-in ink reservoir, it is often called cartridge pen....
s if not used for long time; it then becomes necessary to use water to unclog it.






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"Indian ink" redirects here. For the play by Tom Stoppard, see Indian Ink (play)
Indian Ink (play)

Indian Ink is a 1995 in literature#New drama Play by Tom Stoppard, based on his 1991 radio play In the Native State. Indian Ink had its first performance at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and opened at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on February 27, 1995....
.
India ink (or Indian ink in British English
British English

British English or UK English is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere....
), or less commonly called Chinese ink since it may have been first developed in either India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 or China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, is a simple black ink
Ink

An ink is a liquid containing various pigments and/or dyes used for coloring a surface to produce an , writing, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush or quill....
 once widely used for writing and printing, and now more commonly used for drawing
Drawing

Drawing is a visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, marker pens, stylus, or various metals like silverpoint....
, especially when inking comics
Comics

Comics is a graphic Mass media in which are utilized in order to convey a sequential narrative; the term, derived from massive early use to convey comic themes, came to be applied to all uses of this medium including those which are far from comic....
 and comic strips. Indian ink generally will readily clog fountain pen
Fountain pen

A fountain pen is a pen that contains a reservoir of water-based liquid Fountain pen inks. If it uses ink cartridges instead of having a built-in ink reservoir, it is often called cartridge pen....
s if not used for long time; it then becomes necessary to use water to unclog it. An exception to this is Pelikan
Pelikan

Pelikan is a Germany manufacturer of fine fountain pens and other writing, office and art equipment, credited with the invention of the differential-piston filling method....
 Fount India, which does not contain shellac
Shellac

Shellac is a resin secreted by the female Laccifer lacca to form a cocoon, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand.. It is processed and sold as dry flakes , which are dissolved in denatured alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish much like a combination of stain and polyuretha...
, the substance which can cause clogging.

History

Indian ink has been in use in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 since at least the 4th century BC, where it was called masi , an admixture of several chemical components. Indian documents written in Kharosthi with this ink have been unearthed in as far as Xinjiang
Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of China of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area, spanning over 1.6 million sq....
, China. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common practice since antiquity in South India
South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the Union territories of India of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of area....
. Several ancient Jain sutra
Sutra

Sutra , literally means a rope or thread that holds things together, and more metaphorically refers to an aphorism , or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual....
s in India were also compiled in ink. In India, the carbon black from which India ink was obtained indigenously by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.

Mark Gottsegen argues however that India ink was first invented in China, although he attributes the source of the carbon pigment used in the ink to India. He states that the traditional Chinese method of making the ink was to grind a mixture of hide glue, carbon black, lampblack
Soot

Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres, charred wood, petroleum coke, etc....
, and bone black pigment with a pestle and mortar before pouring it into a ceramic dish where it could dry. In order to use the dry mixture, a wet brush would be applied until it reliquified. Joseph A. Smith also argues that India ink was first invented in China, but used lampblack, carbon black, and bone black that originated in India. Michael and Mary Woods assert that the process of making India ink was known in China as far back as the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, during Neolithic China
List of Neolithic cultures of China

This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been discovered by archaeologists. They are sorted in chronological order from the earliest founding to the latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures....
. However studies by E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan Sun show that India ink was first used in China by Wei Dan (also known as Wei Zhongjiang) of the Cao Wei
Cao Wei

Cao Wei was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Lu?y?ng, the empire was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid....
 state (220–265 AD).

The Chinese had used India ink derived from pine
Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
 soot prior to the 11th century AD, when the polymath official Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo

Shen Kuo or Shen Kua , Chinese style name Cunzhong and Chinese style name#H?o Mengqi Weng, was a polymathic China History of science and technology in China and statesman of the Song Dynasty ....
 (1031–1095) of the mid Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling Chinese dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty....
 became troubled by deforestation
Deforestation

Deforestation is the logging or burning of trees in forested areas. There are several reasons for doing so: trees or derived charcoal can be sold as a commodity and are used by humans while cleared land is used as pasture, plantations of commodities and human settlement....
 (due to the demands of charcoal
Charcoal

Charcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances....
 for the iron industry
History of metallurgy in China

Metallurgy in China has a long history. China was the earliest civilization that produced cast iron....
) and desired making ink from a source other than pine soot
Soot

Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres, charred wood, petroleum coke, etc....
. He believed that petroleum
Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
 (which the Chinese called 'rock oil') was produced inexhaustibly within the earth and so decided to make an ink from the soot of burning petroleum, which the later pharmacologist Li Shizhen
Li Shizhen

Li Shizhen , courtesy name Dongbi , was one of the greatest physicians and pharmacologists in Chinese history. His major contribution to medicine was his forty-year work, which is found in his epic book the Bencao Gangmu....
 (1518–1593) wrote was as lustrous as lacquer
Lacquer

In a general sense, lacquer is a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high Gloss and that can be further polished as required....
 and was superior to pine soot ink.

Uses other than writing

  • Hanetsuki
    Hanetsuki

    Hanetsuki is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badminton except there is no net, and is played with a rectangular wooden paddle, called a hagoita, and a brightly-coloured shuttlecock....
     (????, ????) is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badminton, played by girls at the New Year with a rectangular wooden paddle called a hagoita
    Hagoita

    Hagoita are rectangular wooden paddles, originating in Japan, ostensibly used to play hanetsuki, but often instead serving a more ornamental purpose....
    , and a brightly-colored shuttlecock
    Shuttlecock

    A shuttlecock is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conical shape: the cone is formed from sixteen overlapping goose feathers embedded into a rounded cork base....
    . The shuttlecock must be kept in the air as long as possible. Girls who fail to hit the shuttlecock get marked on the face with Indian ink.
  • Indian ink can also be used for home-made tattoo
    Tattoo

    A tattoo is a permanent marking made by inserting ink into the layers of skin to change the pigment for decorative or other reasons. Tattoos on humans are a type of decorative body modification, while tattoos on animals are most commonly used for identification or branding....
    s (sometimes called "stick and poke" or "prison" tattoos), by repeatedly stabbing the skin with a sharp sewing needle
    Sewing needle

    A sewing needle is a long slender tool with a pointed tip. The first needles were made of bone or wood; modern ones are manufactured from high carbon steel wire, nickel- or gold plated for corrosion resistance....
     wrapped in ink-soaked thread.
  • In pathology laboratories, Indian ink is applied to surgically removed tissue specimens to help maintain orientation and indicate tumor resection margins. To avoid having an inky mess, the painted tissue is sprayed with acetic acid, which acts as a mordant, "fixing" the ink so it doesn't track everywhere. This ink is used because it survives tissue processing, during which time samples of tissue are bathed in alcohol and xylene before being embedded in paraffin wax, as part of making glass microscope slides. When viewed under the microscope, the ink at the tissue edge informs the pathologist of the surgical resection margin or other point of interest. Distance from the tumor to the edge of the specimen is an important prognostic indicator that surgeons and oncologists use to decide follow-up treatment options.
  • Microbiologists use india ink to stain a slide containing bacteria. The background is stained while the bacteria remains clear. This type of staining is called a negative stain
    Negative stain

    Negative staining is an established method, often used in diagnostic microscopy, for contrasting a thin specimen with an optically opaque fluid....
    . India ink, along with other stains, can be used to determine if a cell has a celular capsule.


See also

  • Atramentum
    Atramentum

    Atramentum or atrament, generally means a very black, usually liquid, substance. For example, an octopus may emit a puff of atrament.In ancient Rome, the term atramentum signified any black colouring substance used for any purpose....
  • Pen and ink
    Pen and ink

    Pen and ink refers to a technique of drawing or writing, in which colored ink is applied to paper using a pen or other stylus. It may be used as a medium for Sketch es, or for finished works of art....
  • Ink and wash painting
    Ink and wash painting

    Ink and wash painting is an East Asian type of brush painting also known as wash painting or by its Japanese name sumi-e . Ink and wash painting is also known by its Chinese name shui-mo hua ....
     (Sumi-e)