Silver Nitrate on skin, how do I get it off?

Question

I was playing around with some silver nitrate and you know how it stains skin for a while. Well, what happened was I drew a paw print on my wrist and went to bed. Now, the paw prints on my face and let me tell you, it looks ridicules. Please, how do I get it off?

My mom works at a vet clinic, that's how I got the silver nitrate.

Answer 1

Oh  my!   I'm so sorry to hear that.  Yes, I've had a fair number of silver nitrate stains myself.  Though not on the face!  Ouch.  

The bad news:  silver nitrate gets into the skin, and there the skin reacts with the silver, so it becomes silver oxide particles.  So you actually have a silver oxide tattoo.  Lots of other permanent pigments are metal oxides, too. It doesn't dissolve in anything but strong acids, and that will make your skin look and feel a LOT worse.  Sorry, it can't be washed off like some organic inks.

The good news is that it's only in the dead layers on top, not in the lower layers where it would be permanent, like a tattoo.   But it does go pretty deep.  Washing it off would be painful.  You're going to be wearing it for a few days, but only a few days, until it wears off.   Regular vigorous washing will help a little to speed the process.  

Answer 2

something like that happened to me with silver nitrate. I tried to get it off with alcohol but it didn't work. Unfortunately there was no acetone in laboratory. What i'm saying is try using acetone but not too much.  

Answer 3

Soap & water won't help as you have insoluble Ag+ ions embedded just below your skin's surface.  I believe that if you bathe the stain with with a little sodium thiosulfate (available at any photo supply shop and called 'fixer') on a cotton ball, it will cause the silver to go back to solution and wipe away.  Sodium thiosulfate is not corrosive.  Otherwise, it should wear off in a coule weeks.  

Answer 4

You do have a problem.  The silver nitrate penetrates into the skin and then decomposes to give metallic silver in such small particles that they scatter light in all directions.....voila.....black.  The way to reverse this is to oxidize the metallic silver back to a soluble, colorless ion.  Chemicals I know of that would do this would also damage your skin.  The other way is to get rid of the skin.  I know kids who got black spots from chem lab to pick at them until they took them off, but I would not recommend this, especially for your face.  There are abrasive soaps and other treatments that you could try - but - try these things gently so that you do not damage yourself.  Take your time or you could make it worse.  Cover up the spots with makeup while you try other things.  Sorry it happened.  

Answer 5

Soap and water should do the trick.

You would be unwise to put any stronger chemicals on your face where they might get into your eyes.