India ink

Ink drawing of Ganesha under an umbrella (early 19th century).

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

India ink (or Indian ink in British English), or less commonly called Chinese ink since it may have been first developed in either India or China, is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing, and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comics and comic strips. Indian ink tends to clog fountain pens if not used for long time; it then becomes necessary to use water to unclog it. An exception to this is Pelikan Fount India, which does not contain shellac, the substance which causes clogging.

History

Indian ink has been in use in India since at least the 4th century BC, where it was called masi (Tamil: மசி), an admixture of several substances.^[1] Indian documents written in Kharosthi with this ink have been unearthed in as far as Xinjiang, China.^[2] The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common practice since antiquity in South India.^[3] Several ancient Jain sutras in India were also compiled in ink.^[4] In India, the carbon black from which India ink is formulated was obtained indigenously by burning bones, tar, pitch, and other substances.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[6] In order to use the dry mixture, a wet brush would be applied until it reliquified.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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 state (220–265 AD).^[9]

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.^{[10][11][12][13]}

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.^{[citation needed]}
• Indian ink can also be used for homemade tattoos (sometimes called "stick and poke" or "prison" tattoos) by repeatedly stabbing the skin with a sharp sewing needle wrapped in ink-soaked thread.
• In pathology laboratories, Indian ink is applied to surgically removed tissue specimens to 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. 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 before being mounted on 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 select follow-up treatments.
• 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. India ink, along with other stains, can be used to determine if a cell has a gelatinous capsule.^[14]

See also

• Atramentum
• Ink and wash painting (Sumi-e)
• Pen and ink
• Pen painting

Notes

1. ^ Banerji, page 673
2. ^ Sircar, page 206
3. ^ Sircar, page 62
4. ^ Sircar, page 67
5. ^ "India ink." in Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Gottsegen, page 30.
7. ^ Smith, page 23.
8. ^ Woods & Woods, 51–52.
9. ^ Sun & Sun, page 288.
10. ^ Sivin, III, page 24.
11. ^ Menzies, page 24.
12. ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, pages 75–76.
13. ^ Deng, page 36.
14. ^ Woeste and Demchick, Volume 57, Part 6, pages 1858-1859

References