Marking ink

Marking ink, also ink, is used during grossing/at cut-up to mark the surgical margin and orient specimens unambiguously.

Abdominoperineal resection after marking ink was applied.

Rules of thumb

• Ink before you think. Ink before cutting. If you apply ink after you've cut into the tumour you are more likely to get stray ink on tumour that isn't the margin.
• Green and blue are the preferred marking ink colours as they are easier to see at the time of embedding.
• It is good to avoid black ink in skin lesions, as it can difficult to discern black marking ink from a pigmented melanoma. This can be remember by black is bad and green is good!

Common conventions

• Blue is superior and green is inferior. Why? The sky is blue and the grass is green.
• Green is right and left is red. Why? Planes and ships have green right and red left.
  • The above can be remembered by sailors that drink port wine with no red port left; red is port.

See also

• Gross pathology.