I get ink on my fingers from two sources *beyond* ink changing fun.

One, I have a cranky pen. I can't figure out if the converter is the problem or the nib (I'm a total noob) but one of my favorite pens will write and somehow after a while cease to suck ink out of the converter. I have to open the pen and turn the little suction piston on the converter a time or two. If I knew what the problem was, I'd fix it, but it's my most favoritest (sentimental reasons) pen and I can't bear to let it languish!

Two, when I've been writing a lot, I do get sloppy with my pen grip and my fingers do occasionally touch the top/side/bottom of nib. I normally get this on my index finger. And as soon as I do, I realize I've been naughty.....

But in general I'm in a career where being a little...odd is sort of a job requirement. Eccentric means authentic or something, I suppose. So nobody's commented on my inkstained fingers.

And I doubt it's hampering my social life: crikey. So many things wrong with me you'd have to study me for years before you ever got down to my inky digits.....

HK

I think you should try to keep the ink off of your hands, but not if it means using ballpoints to do so.

I'm several multiples of your age and I am ink stained. "Schoolboy thing" indeed!


I want to note for the record here that when I was in school I got inky fingers from ballpoint pens. And that junk is much harder to get off your hands than fountain pen ink is.


Oh, please. I have current "to do" lists that are older than you are.


Alcohol wipes are sold for those of us who need to poke something sharp into ourselves from time to time. They're very convenient. The 70% alcohol is on a folded up piece of fabric in a sealed, metalized plastic pack that's about an inch on a side and less than an eighth of an inch thick. They last for years and deliver enough alcohol to do the job and there's no danger of spilling with them.


Good for you.


Sounds like a healthy attitude . Concentrate on the education and don't mind the inky fingers. In fact this entire thing may prepare you to be a more independent thinking adult. And the world needs more of those.

Well, Im a girl and I think ink stained fingers are definitely attractive! If nothing else it says you are an intellegent and thinknig person. And if I saw ink on a guy's fingers I personally would feel he was a cut above the rest of the ballpoint pen using hoards that surround me. Id also be attracted to him because we'd likely have a love of writing aad FPs in common, a real conversation starter!
And I agree with many on here - get yourself a hooded pen, for now at least. You can come back to your old faithfuls in the future. I write very low on the section and hoodeds are great for this kind of grip. I have a growing collection of Parker 45s that I adore.
But just to keep the old folks happy, buy some ink remover for your fingers, so at least you arrive at the dinner table with clean hands. It only takes a few moments to use, and it shows your maturity if you can meet them halfway.

But dont ever give in to pressure to give up the FPs; find a girl who loves you for it!

Cheers

yeh point taken.

never got ink on me from one of those. once got covered in ink from one of those rollerpen things. I bit the end off cos I wanted to have a look at the sponge tube thing that holds all the ink, so I shook the pen over my hand until it came out. It did come out, but a load of ink came out with it. It didn't have the plastic round it like I thought it would and i had to try and ease it back up the pen tube with my fingers...my mum went mad when she found out. i would have got away with it but i had to drive her to the shops and she spotted it then. you can't really hide it when your driving.

i am 17, i am an adult now really.

that's what i'm doing now. i am studying hard and i don't wiorry about the ink til after college is finished for the day and i've got my homework done. then i look at my fingers and they are covered in ink but i do not care now. it shows i am studying hard and doing all my coursework.

That's an interesting thought, i have a girlfriend who is several years older than me and she is always fascinated by the ink on my fingers. I dont know if she finds them attractive but when we sit watching tv or whatever she is always "examining" my fingers and having a close look at all the inky bits! I asked her about it and she says my hands look "sweet" with ink on them.

so that's good cos everyone else says they look horrible.

Yeah I might try that. It'll keep the folks quiet. Myself, I don't mind getting ink on me, in fact i quite enjoy getting all messy.

Heh yeah that's really the hard bit. they don't like inky hands! my dad now says i can't drive his car with inky hands either. i mean i have my own car, but his is really nice. so i need to come up with a compromise. i'll speak to him later.

I agree with the poster who says inky fingers can be attractive to a woman.

I'm a woman of 58. I think inky fingers on a young man is both attractive and fascinating. I have a 17 year old grandson who often stays with me, and his best friend from school is always round here with him. That friend is often coming home from school with his hands covered in ink. I think it makes him look grown up, intelligent, and it makes him look unafraid to be "different". Myself, I think it also shows an element of masculinity, but maybe that's just me.

I am not sure how my grandson's friend gets his ink stains, whether from writing or filling. He is still a little self conscious about his hands when he has a lot of ink on them, so it's difficult to get him to show me the stains close up. However, he often takes me out in his car, (so many teenagers have their own cars these days!) so when he's driving I do get to see them quite close up. I think it's from both. It seems to get on the back of his hand as well and I can't work that out.

Zarjaz, your hand in the picture you posted on page 1 of this thread looks lovely, and even the ink stains are a beautiful colour. You should be proud of your hands and your ink stains, girls will find them both fascinating! I can just picture you sat at your school desk scribbling away busily, fingers covered in ink.

eh, I'll play contrarian. It's really not normal to get that much ink on your hands while using a fountain pen. Common causes for that kind of ink coverage would be a leaky pen, a badly maintained pen (not cleaning at sufficient intervals), carelessness while handling the pen, etc.--things which suggest that you don't properly care for your tools, and which do not reflect well on you. An occasional spot from bleedthrough while filling is one thing--extensive and regular stains across three fingers is another. I wouldn't suggest not using fountain pens anymore, but I would suggest getting to the bottom of why the pens are covered with ink.

I agree with the Amodex solution, and with upgrading to a more m odern pen. If a pen comes to you in slightly snarky shape, then you should probably realize that it may not have been well-treated. Therefore, a few things can be off (a section may not screw in right, etc). My modern never before owned pens are generally fine.

LOL here i am again with my fingers looking a bit of a mess.

Had a lot of homework to do so been working on that pretty much solid since 9pm. almost seven hours of solid writing later and my hands are a sorry state. gotta admit, been rushing the work a bit and trying to concentrate so didn't really pay much attention to the pen, writing standards or proper pen handling etc.

pen ran out twice during the session, filled it MEGA quick by just dipping it deep into the bottle and squeezing. not even time to get a tissue to wipe the barrel, just put my fingers straight back on it. didn't really notice the ink until I finished, i was just too busy.

looking at the delightful blue patterns that have formed on my right hand, it looks like i've been sliding the pen up and down in between my fingers, never a good habit especially with a leaky pen.

but the worst is probably my poor little thumb, as usual. my thumb is always the worst hit, in fact since term started nearly a month ago there has not been a single day when my thumb hasn't had ink on it, even on days when the rest of my hand stays clean.

I have been using disposable syringes to fill up my pens. I thought by drawing measured amount of inks, I would have less inky fingers to clean. Now I found out that 1cc of ink is about the most amount you can fill in. Once it overflows, you need the standard emergency kit. A table laid with paper on top. Toilet roll, its super absorbment and tears fast. Alcohol swabs. The swab is effective in removing ink while it is still wet and by rubbing hard on skin. Finally a tweezer, swabbing out ink trapped in ink caps. Syringes serve other uses too. I would fill one with soapy water. Besides being useful for dry writers, a quick squirt is all you needed for removal of ink from the floor.

I agree with Oracle, although I dont get inky fingers and I use cheap and expensive pens, I think that this is down to user error, establish why the ink is getting on your fingers. If its a crack in the plastic then that is soon fixed, keep the pen upright when you carry it and be considerate when you are filling it and you shouldnt have any problems.

me again.

tonight my dad has given me a very old fountain pen of his and wanted to watch me clean and fill it which i quite enjoyed doing. its not been used for years so it took a lot of messing about to get it up and running at all. my dad's quite pleased I managed to get it to write again though.

my dad sat opposite me while I did the pen, so he has now watched me get my hands covered in ink. So now i think he's a bit more sympathetic to me getting inky fingers at college and maybe won't tell me off quite so much.

Well i turned 18 yesterday. i am now officially an adult.

went for a drive yesterday, made me realise i am doing many adult things now, driving a fast car being one of them, it's a very adult responsibility.

my dad is going to buy me a new fountain pen for my brithday. we both agree that since i am not a kid any more, i should not be getting ink on my hands whenever i do my homework.

so i need to know what i should get. I need to remember that i tend to write with my fingers either on or close to the nib, so some sort of hooded nib should stop most of the problem. I also don't want a pen with cartridges, i want one that fills from a bottle, though i'm aware I'll probably still manage to get inky hands from doing that but at least it'll only be when i fill it, rather than every day.

Happy Birthday Zarjaz.

The fast car you are driving can be like a fountain pen in some ways. If you drive carelessly (DUI or too fast) you may wreck the car or get involved in a bad accident. If you drive carefully and take care of your car, it will take you werever you are going and back, it shouldn't break down in the middle of the road and will give you good reliable service, just like a nice nib will do.

Ink will stain. That is a fact. Pens holds ink. Another fact. If you are careless while handling a fountain pen or any other kind of pen, accidents staining your fingers or clohes will happen frequently. If you don't take care of your pen it will leak or give you some other trouble. However, your writing instrument will reward you with good reliable service if you are careful and keep it clean. Just be careful when you handle and fill your pen and you won't stain your fingers so often.

Oh, by the way, a Pelikan Souveran (any price, series or model) would be a wonderful birthday gift for you. And please keep using a fountain pen!!

Happy birthday!

Doesn't a Lamy 2000 have a semi-hooded nib? It's a piston-fill.

The key to all this is whether you like using a fountain pen. I suspect you do, so that's enough. Of course, you can listen respectfully to other folks' opinions about it, but you're the ultimate decider. My youngest is a bit older than you and I've tried to teach her to seek advice from others, think about all sides, then make up her own mind.

BTW, congrats on the 18th birthday!

It looks like the ink is coming from the pen and not the filling process?

Congratulations on your Birthday! As I am killing time at work, I had a chance to read your whole saga, and have a few options for you. Regarding the removal of ink, a nice and inexpensive option for your hands is regular shampoo. This works pretty well, especially if you are on a budget (I learned of this idea from Glenn Marcus's site: www.marcuslink.com/pens/index.html). As for avoiding inking during refills: if I am trying to be particularly fastidious, and I am using a converter, I will remove the converter portion and fill that directly from the bottle or with a syringe. It sounds like you have several pens, you could try filling them all the night before and using each one until it runs out. If you don't mind having several pens on-hand, this may be an easy solution.

Regarding a new pen for you: I have a Pilot Vanishing Point that I very much enjoy, especially now that I have added an ItaliFine nib (from Richard Binder). However, in 'listening' to your writing habits, you may find this pen cumbersome. The converter for bottled ink is rather small, and it may be that you will run out of ink so frequently that you spend more time filling than writing. The filling process is less messy than with other pens because the nib/converter unit is removed from the barrel when filling, and allows easy cleaning before you reassemble and go. The retractable nib feature is also a great convenience.

Of my other pens, I am very partial to my Pelikan Souveran. It writes beautifully and has a nice weight. There are several models from which to choose (varying in size and price), and I would recommend going to your pen shop and trying them out (my advice for any new fountain pen you're contemplating). Be cautious of pens that have a "nice heft" to them. While I enjoy the few that I have (such as an S.T. Dupont), they can cause rather a cramp with prolonged writing. This, however, is a very personal observation, and others are likely to have different opinions. My Aurora with italic nib is another enjoyable and easy pen to use. The sharp italic nib does tend to catch on the edges, so is not the best choice for rapid note-taking (a cursive italic nib may alleviate the problem, if you are inclined in this direction).

The other pen that I have an eye on, but no real experience with personally, is the Pilot Falcon. The one time I trialed it, I noticed it to be very light and have a very flexible nib. As for long-term use, another member may be better able to enlighten you.

I hope these mental dribblings have been useful to you (they certainly helped me kill off a bit of the morning!). In the end, do some on-line research into the pens for your budget and then take your time to try them out personally. As you obviously have a love of the "fountain pen experience," make sure that you enjoy the process of finding the next perfect pen.

Cheers!

I had that problem when I would refill from a bottle, but after following the advice on this site, I am ink-free -- and still refilling!
As simple as it sounds, just wipe off the top of the bottle after unscrewing the cap. And proceed slowly.

Now if your staining problem occurs when you are writing....are you left handed?
I am -- with that crazy around through the backdoor twist of my arm.
Sometimes, if I go too fast, I will smear over what I have written, but usually it is avoidable.
hth
PL

If it's the childish appearance what bothers you, may I suggest you can use black ink and stain all your fingers? You can pretend you was just recorded at the police station.

Bah! My inky fingers are a badge of honor.