The other day, deep in concentration at work (well it must have seemed like that to my colleagues) I picked up my VP to make a note of something but I had forgotten that a) the nib was already deployed and I had picked up the pen the "wrong" way round. So I stabbed myself in the thumb and gave myself a homemade tattoo in Diamine Imperial Purple ink!

It occurred to me later that this is an occupational hazard with the VP.

(small edit to make sense)

Yup, dunnit. Immediate reaction was, "I hope I didn't damage the nib!"

Doug

Must be something in the air at the moment. I picked mine up at work on Monday, wrong way round, went to click it open and stabbed myself in the thumb with the nib that was already extracted anyway I have now got a nice FPN Starry Night tattoo.

Luckily the nib seems to have survived without any damage.

OT: mucephei and misterh, you are both from the UK and both have tenor sax guys as avatars. Rollins and Coltrane? Just guessing. Is this a UK thing or something? Hey, saxophones are brass and so are VP's!

Doug

Well noticed, not sure it is a UK thing, just that we have good taste

Hadn't thought of saxophones and VPs both being brass.

I play the tenor sax too...but not as well as Trane or indeed the artist in my avatar, Joe Henderson.

Okay, I've done this. Former alto sax player. I played tenor in some small ensembles, though.

Hmmm....this IS strange. I've also done the VP tattoo (Legal Lapis in my case). AND....I'm also a former alto sax player. Strange coincidences.

oh wow, are you guys are doing an X-file thing or what?????

Apparently this does happen from time to time. I've seen a few posts across the past couple of years, like this one, where someone has impaled a thumb with a VP nib, because they weren't looking (and tried to click the wrong end of the pen!). VP duty hazard.

I have a Kon Peki coloured bottom lip as a result of a pause for thought with the pen upside down - it's an age thing....
If I continue, I will have to always fill it with Diamine Amaranth

Are you now, or have you ever been, a sax player?

have you, at long last, no sense of decency?

done that. ouch.

not only that. Since most of my pens are cap-ful, I like to absent-mindedly squeeze the ends of a pen between the tips of my thumb and pinky. Well, you can imagine the first couple of days of the VP entering rotation are a bit... rough.

Haven't stabbed myself with a VP or any pen (yet). I do have a blue ink tattoo on my sternum from a ballpoint pen in my jacket pocket 'way back when. At the time I played clarinet. Coincidence?