My index finger has been very effectively purpled, thanks to a mess someone left for me during the microbiology lab exam today. Grabbed the rubber tubing attached to the faucet, and it was absolutely covered in Crystal Violet dye. I couldn’t wash it off right away because I had to finish my Gram stain, so it had plenty of time to soak right into the skin. Washing soon afterwards with soap and water didn’t help much. I tried using the acetone-alcohol decolorizer, but it would seem that I’m Gram positive.
After washing my hands a dozen times, and rubbing at my finger with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball, the skin isn’t frightfully purple anymore, but I have quite a bit still stuck around my nail bed.
Aside from finding a nailpolish color that matches so I can have all my nails this fetching purple, what can I do?
After all that, I am not sure that you can get it off. The only thing that I have found that even works remotely well is 95% ethanol but even that won’t get it all off once it is embedded in your tissues. Crystal Violet is designed to stain tissues and it does the job quite well.
In short, if you can some nearly pure alcohol (either from a lab or even Everclear if they sell it where you live) you can pour a lot on and them scrub to maybe get some more off.
If that doesn’t work, the staining probably won’t last for more than a few days.
Not a lab technician, but I’ve gotten quite a lot of dyes on my hands over the years.
What I’ve found that, after even acetone won’t get it off, a good scrub with a brillo pad will.
It doesn’t feel too pleasant, but it does take most of the color off, even around the nail bed.
HAHAHA! I am a lab tech, and this happens to me pretty much everyday!!
I just spray it with 100% ethanol. It won’t all come off, although the ETOH should take off enough so that you don’t ‘bleed’ crystal violet all day. Wait a coupla days and you’ll be back to normal!!
You pretty much can’t. It binds with great avidity to protein, of which the outer layers of your skin are almost entirely comprised. I use it in a simple colorimentric assay to quantitate cells, and methanol solubilizes the dye bound to monolayers completely; you’d think it would come off skin as well, but no such luck. I’ve gotten it on my fingers too, and nothing could take it all off, not even acetone. It’ll wear away in a few days, as your skin sheds.
This one time right after I had managed to get stain all over my hands, I had to go perform a phlebotomy. I tried getting off as much as I could with 100% ETOH, but of course, you can’t get it all. So out I go, start chatting with the patient, got my gear ready…and then swabbed his arm with alcohol.
The patient looked down to see a big purple swipe down the crook of his elbow. Looks up at me, looks down at purple stain. Poor man looked so confused, he didn’t know if he should be in pain or what. I had to quickly explain what happened to in the micro lab nad reassure him that no, crystal violet does not contain any cyanide. I don’t think he believed me.
WHOOPS! Some days, it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.
Mmmm…I don’t know if there’d be enough interest in such a thread to warrant starting one; that said if you want to know anything, feel free to ask. Also, I can email you some pictures of up here if you want.
Quick Q: you are training to be a lab tech, correct? In USA? when will you be done? If you are serious about working in Arctic, we will be hiring soon. (Read: Right now.)
Well, you can e-mail me if you like - it’s in my profile.
But to answer your questions, yes, I’m still studying. I’m in my second year, one more year to go (graduate with CSMLS certification in summer of 2006), and I’m in a program in Quebec. Have a B.Sc. already, and I’m taking the scenic route towards a career. So I wouldn’t be able to ship out NOW for a full time job or anything, but I’m not opposed to a summer job!
The next thing I do with a dye or stain on skin - after removing as much as I can with alcohol, etc., is to apply oil or an oily substance (lotion is usually the most readily available) to the area. Oils will sop up some of the dye that didn’t wash off, and make it easier for the cleaning agents to extract more. I’m not sure how/why this works; IANA chemist, and I discovered it entirely by accident. :dubious:
It will wear off after a time. This is the same stuff after all used in bank dyes.
I do remember in college coating a pillow with the stuff A-hole drunk guy woke up with quite a scary looking face. I was much the miscreant in college.
We don’t wear gloves in the micro lab! Well, not yet, because we’re only working with beginner bacteria for now, and as my teacher says, we should have good enough technique not to get anything on our hands anyway. When we move on to patient specimens, the gloves go on. Haven’t done a Wright’s stain yet, but we’ve done a spore stain (stayed clean on that one though), and a supravital stain in hematology.
The irritating part is that I haven’t gotten a drop of stain on myself in my year and a half in this program, until the lab exam yesterday. So, when the prof is watching me and scribbling down notes about everything I do, I turn away from the sink with a purple hand holding my perfectly stained slide. Sigh.
I gotta say, it’s nice to see so many techs on the Dope. Although it does make me wonder whether they’re telling the truth about this profession being so in demand right now… Push over, guys, I’ll need a job next year!
The no-gloves-in-micro thing I never understood. We had it pounded into our heads that all body fluids were pontentially infectious, and that we risked certain death if we didn’t wear gloves. Then in micro, we’re staring at the little beasties in dishes, holding them in our bare hands. The only time I really saw gloves in micro was the TB area, and then it had level 10 force fields and a small thermonuclear device in case of contamination.
As for the OP: I’ve been stained, and tried most of the things suggested already. It wears off after three days or so.
Jobs: yes, you will find one. It might be in Kaktovik, Labrador or waaay out on the Gaspesie, but, yes there will be a job for you. Bide your time, get some experience and watch for the perfect job that will open up in a few years.