Hi everyone. I have been engraving tiles with some success & filling with paint or sharpies. I recently found out you could paint tiles with indian ink. My questions are - can you use the ink to fill? and can you engrave on top of the ink once it is dry on the tile?
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Most likely the answer is yes to both. Most inks and paints are just fine to laser, in fact I can’t think of any offhand that are particularly dangerous.
I say try it out! Experimenting like this is one of the most fun aspects of having a Glowforge.
For a bit more info, here’s a discussion about material safety when lasering, check out #4:
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Thank you - I will need to investigate further. Has anyone else had the same idea? It seems that one project leads to many more
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Ink? Or specifically India ink?
I did metallic acrylic inks on tile:
Not sure I’ve seen India ink specifically on tile but it’ll probably work. Tiles are super cheap, just give it a whirl! You can be a pioneer 
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pretty sure i’ve tried it on engraved tile.
not sure if applying ink first and then engraving will do anything for you. the reason the ink works is because you’re engraving off the glaze, then coloring in the unglazed portion. and the ink will wipe off the glazed portion. if you put it on pre-engrave, it would just be a puddle of ink on top of the glazed tile.
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Investigate, then tell us your results. Sometimes I’ve made a ‘mistake’ that turned into a good idea for someone else’s application. We all learn when we share.
Go for it!
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This^^!
It’s a treasure hunt! Test all the things. 
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The indian ink stayed on the glazed surface ok but I have just sprayed a coating over it to keep it in place… results follow. I will let you know when I engrave over a freshly inked tile this week (exciting)
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YAY … I sealed two tiles after 2 days of drying and is now protected. The ink is staying put. I am going to try engraving the tile and filling it with the ink next. Just showing the tiles with the ink (the fish one I engraved the fish first & filled, then I carefully used the ink to do the weeds, waited for it 2 days to dry and sealed it) The design one is just ink - 2 days to dry then sealed.
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Those are really lovely. Thanks for showing us finished results.
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