In view of the difficulty, the time involved, and the inevitable uncertainty of the outcome, it may be inadvisable to attempt removal in some cases: for example, heavy stains on sensitive textiles where there is a high risk of colour loss or fabric damage.
If you do decide to go ahead, make sure you have plenty of absorbent fabric ready to soak up the stain - It is amazing how much ink these leaks release.
For heavy stains, it will normally be necessary to unpick part of the lining to gain access to the inside of the garment and to the interlining where most of the ink will be.
If there is a lot of ink in the pocket lining, the most practical solution is to cut out the lining and renew the pocket.
Absorbent material should then be placed inside the jacket lining to soak up the ink from the interlining and the outer fabric. Any ink in the lining of the jacket should removed separately.
Putting a ring of glycerine around the stain will help to prevent the ink spreading. Then apply paint remover and start padding off the ink with absorbent material. Keep working on the stain until ink stops being liberated, this will take a long time and it will be necessary to keep changing the absorbent material as ink is released.
It is useful to have more than one paint remover for when the ink stops running with one product, another will often remove a little more.
Finally, the steam gun can be used to gently warm the stain to remove a little more ink, but never use heat until you are sure that no more ink is being removed. Using the steam gun too soon may suddenly release a lot of ink and redeposit it on the textile. As the material will have been swollen by the heat it may absorb the ink, leaving a stain that is impossible to remove. This is a particular risk with animal hair textiles.
It will normally be necessary to move to the wetside to remove the last traces of the stain, but again, never work on the wetside until you have removed as much ink as possible on the dryside.
If necessary the final traces of ink can often be removed with hydrogen peroxide or sodium perborate bleach after first testing the fabric to ensure that the colour is not affected.
Again, a ring of glycerine around the stain will help to prevent the ink spreading.
