"ingrained image" is a correct and commonly used phrase in written English.
It refers to a strongly and deeply rooted mental image or idea that has been ingrained in a person's mind or memory. Example: The horrific scenes from the war had left an ingrained image in her mind, haunting her every night and making it difficult for her to sleep.
A horror like Sept. 11 explodes our ingrained image for a little while, both literally and in the way that engineers speak of an "exploded diagram".
The real woman more than lives up to her photograph: "Paused in profile, my ingrained image of Paige Roderick finally fell away, and the woman herself came into focus: the long legs, the narrow waist, and a blossoming upper body — broad shoulders and full breasts — evident (albeit to a trained eye) under the loose T-shirt".
Despite the ingrained image of pretty girls in movies wearing sweaters and short skirts waving pom-poms, the modern cheerleader couldn't be further from this stereotype.
"It is one of the most deeply ingrained images in American advertising".
The familiar names constitute an Edenic "before" to the ingrained images of an apocalyptic "after".
Deeply ingrained images and apprehensions, reinforced though years of propaganda, surge to the surface, along with hatreds long suppressed by the police apparatus.
When we signed on to do reality shows that fed into the media's stereotypes of black men, we ingrained an image of Trayvon Martin so overwhelming that who he actually may have been didn't matter anymore.
Russell Redux is, in essence, a product relaunch designed to emphasize Russell's championship pedigree, not to deal with his image, ingrained with the public as enigmatic and aloof.
India's bowlers will certainly have had his image ingrained in their minds -- and quite possibly their nightmares -- after he batted for more than 11 hours to score 253 not out, more than all of India's batsmen combined compiled in their first innings.
Some may be sceptical about this bond being formed as we treat China in a rather British, standoffish manner with scary, evil, Fu Manchu images ingrained in many minds.
They did their best to recall names, numbers, images and cards using the ancient "memory palace" technique, in which unfamiliar words and numbers are linked to familiar mental images ingrained in a person's long-term memory.
