India ink

India ink (or Indian ink in British English) is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips.

Composition

Basic India ink is composed of a variety of fine soot known as lampblack, combined with water to form a liquid. A binding agent such as gelatin or, more commonly, shellac may also be added, to make the ink more durable once dried. India ink is occasionally sold not as a liquid, but in solid form (most commonly, a stick), which must be moistened before use.

History

India ink has been in use in India since at least the 4th century BC, where it was called masi, an admixture of several substances. Indian documents written in Kharosthi with this ink have been unearthed in as far as Xinjiang, China. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp-pointed needle was common practice since antiquity in South India. Several ancient Buddhist and Jain scripts in India were also compiled in ink. In India, the carbon black from which India ink is formulated 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, and bone black pigment with a pestle and mortar before pouring it into a ceramic dish where it could dry. 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. However E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan Sun states that India ink was first used in China by Wei Dan (also known as Wei Zhongjiang) of the Cao Wei state (220–265 AD). Historically the ink used in China were in the form of ink sticks made of lampblack and animal glue.

The Chinese had used India ink derived from pine soot prior to the 11th century AD, when the polymath official Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the mid Song Dynasty became troubled by deforestation (due to the demands of charcoal for the iron industry) and desired making ink from a source other than pine soot. He believed that petroleum (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 (1518–1593) wrote was as lustrous as lacquer and was superior to pine soot ink.

Uses other than writing

Hanetsuki (羽根突き, 羽子突き) is a Japanese traditional game, similar to badminton, played by girls at the New Year with a rectangular wooden paddle called a hagoita and a brightly-colored shuttlecock. 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 India ink.

Amateur tattoo artists will sometimes use India ink for tattooing the skin. Non-medical grade India ink should not be used for homemade tattoos because it contains chemicals which could cause poisoning.

In pathology laboratories, India ink is applied to surgically removed tissue specimens to maintain orientation and indicate tumor resection margins. The painted tissue is sprayed with acetic acid, which acts as a mordant, "fixing" the ink so it doesn't track. This ink is used because it survives tissue processing, during which tissue samples are bathed in alcohol and xylene and then embedded in paraffin wax. When viewed under the microscope, the ink at the tissue edge informs the pathologist of the surgical resection margin or other point of interest.

Microbiologists use India ink to stain a slide containing micro-organisms. The background is stained while the organisms remain clear. This type of staining is called a negative stain. India ink, along with other stains, can be used to determine if a cell has a gelatinous capsule. A common application of this procedure in the clinical microbiology laboratory is to confirm the morphology of the encapsulated yeast Cryptococcus spp.

Model Railroaders use a mixture of India ink and Isopropyl Alcohol as a wood stain, graying wood to appear aged, and to bring out detail.

India ink is used diluted as an ultra fine polishing medium for making precise optical surfaces on metals.

In ophthalmology, it was and still is used to some extent in corneal tattooing.

Once dry, its conductive properties make it useful for electrical connections to difficult substrates, such as glass. Although relatively low in conductivity, surfaces can be made suitable for electroplating, low frequency shielding, or for creating large conductive geometries for high voltage apparatuses. A piece of paper impregnated with India ink serves as a grid leak resistor in some tube radio circuits.

See also

Aquadag

Atramentum

Inkstick

Ink and wash painting (Sumi-e)

Pen and ink

Pen painting

Notes

References

Category:Art materials Category:Drawing Category:Inks