Squid ink

[Tsujigiri]

I've written with cephalopod ink for years, first with dipping pens and now with fountain pens. It works well enough although people complain that my correspondence smells of seafood, which is one of the less common varieties of scented inks and certainly a lot less popular than orange or narcissus. It is also a minor problem that when I walk down the street with my pen in my pocket, I am followed by cats.

 

I have arrived at the conclusion that eyedroppers are a better choice than filling by other methods. When I would take my converter in hand and approach Martha, my pet East Mediterranean Mottled Octopus, in hopes of her filling it with ink, she would retreat to the back of her tank, angrily flash psychedelic colours and try to bite my fingers. We get along better with the eyedropper because I can cradle her in my left arm and gently apply the eyedropper with my right hand (I am right handed). The reward of a tiny brine-shrimp (to Martha, not to me - I hate brine-shrimp) keeps her pleased to cooperate.

 

Another plus is it saves me a lot of money I might have squandered on Noodler's.

 

That made me laugh, too. Now I want a pet octopus... :roflmho:

[jandrese]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...ire/8208838.stm

 

Which leads me to wonder whether there are any sources for natural cephalopod "inks" and what they would do to a fountain pen. :-)

 

 

You can just extract the ink yourself. I know a very accomplished squid ink artist from Alaska who picks up bags of ink as it were from the shore. FYI squid ink is very durable and may horribly stain pens or clog the feed. Could get awesome shading from the right pen though.

[Chthulhu]

The next time I crave calamari, I'll get it fresh and harvest the ink, then. :-)

[ruud2904]

"It is difficult to imagine how you can have something as soft and sloppy as an ink sac fossilised in three dimension, still black, and inside a rock that is 150 million years old."

 

Amazing ! Next time I have a pen restored I think I will use an ink sac made out of.....rock The sac material will hold for as long as I live and very litte vaporization of the ink. Okay, okay, there might be some slight issues of (re)filling and getting the ink to the feed..... :roflmho: