Ink for work, professional and beautiful but rebellious, are you a colour subversive?

[sjkissell]

I was an ink subversive myself and recently we were all told that the ink had to be black. Well, anything that looks "blackish " on the page works for me, so I bought about $60 worth of ink samples from goulet.com in the grey and dark colored ranges, from bad green gator from noodlers to diamine ebony brown, ebony purple and ebony green, and the J.Herbin Stormy Grey which is grey with gold shimmer. It makes me happy to ink a pen and know that the ink makes a statement along with the words.

[Jolltax]

I was an ink subversive myself and recently we were all told that the ink had to be black.

The ink police ..... they are out there waiting .......

[mhosea]

I was an ink subversive myself and recently we were all told that the ink had to be black.

If they made me use black, I think I would use iron-gall blue-black inks a lot. That way I could see the blue, but it would turn black before the ink police saw it.

[notsim]

I went back to Sailor Jentle Yama Dori for note taking, its easier on the eyes than Kiwa-Guro nano black for me.

If it had been only for note taking I would have stayed with Yama-dori.
But now I sign quite a lot of official documents and I didn't really know if that colour would go down well. I especially sign lots of transport documents and I don't know how the customs officers in some countries would react to a greenish teal.

For signing documents I use Mont Blanc Permanent Grey 90th anniversary ink.

[akapulko2020]

Oh nice. I am trying to do the same and after discovering that Iroshizuko inks can be had for a fraction of the price from Japan I am using them to lighten up my day....ama-iro, kon-peki, yama-budo. people are so boring nowadays with their cheap biro's in black....7

Would love more details on buying from Japan :-)

[Armstrong]

Personally I would be tempted to tell them to sue me, but that's just me. The only 'real' issue is whether the color will copy on on a copier or get picked up by a fax machine. Might be something you will want to test. This is often the reason companies give for restricting ink to blue or black. There is another approach. For official document you could use blues, blacks, browns, dark green, etc. For notes or anything of your own you could use any color you please. One could always carry a couple of pens without much trouble. One with 'official' ink and another with fun ink.

I think inks that are more saturated will raise fewer eyebrows as they tend to come off a darker shade on paper. Noodler's inks are among the most saturated on the market. I use Noodler's Purple Martin a lot but it is very paper dependent. On paper that is not very absorbent it looks more like a dark blue with purple highlights. On more absorbent papers it comes off as a purple shade that can vary from dark to violet. Makes it an interesting color. I would think dark green would work well. You might keep a pen with red ink for highlighting notes or if you need to call attention to something in a document. A really dark red might be OK for general use or variations like maroon or red-brown. Again, saturated colors will probably draw less attention particularly in darker shades. The drawback to saturated inks is more frequent cleaning or if you have a pen that is a very dry writer it could have a flow problem.

[Rusty888]

I find. Dark Browns , greens or lively blues are fine.

[mhosea]

Personally I would be tempted to tell them to sue me, but that's just me. The only 'real' issue is whether the color will copy on on a copier or get picked up by a fax machine.

The latter is the technical issue, but there is a generic principle afoot, having nothing specific to do with ink. It is about people. People think things for all kinds of "reasons". To function as a human, we are each endowed with a healthy catalog of fictions, half-truths, and the arbitrary to accompany what is hopefully a large catalog of rational, "evidential" beliefs. When encountering something of the former variety that for some reason offends or bothers you, you must make a choice. Do you confront it? More to the point, are you presently engaged in trying to get something else accomplished, the achievement of which might be adversely affected by the distraction of making an issue of it? Being considered a troublemaker or "kook" in a conformist business workplace seems rather unlikely to improve your effectiveness at getting real work done. Before you know it, the downstream effects might matter a great deal more to you than your freedom to use bright purple ink.

[Sevenof9]

okay go to Amazon and look for iroshizuko inks. Santa trading is a good place....the delivery can be slow, but that does not matter to me if the ink is 12-15 pounds the bottle (Uk retailers ask 25-30). Enjoy Akapulko. 7

[Armstrong]

Oh exactly, but then I am an ornery old hillbilly. Like I said, that's just me. Has nothing to do with the person who posted, or wisdom. It does have everything to do with a habit of doing the unexpected or bending/breaking rules that had no real reason for existence whenever I got a chance. ;-) And here I think there is, reasonably safe, room to push the boundaries a bit by using darker, more saturated colors of ink. For instance, who could complain about a dark turquoise, isn't that just another shade of blue?

[Chrissy]

I've used the following in a business setting without negative comment:
MB Racing Green...if you can get it. That's a very big if
Sailor Sei Boku or Platinum Pigment Blue-Black.
Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue.
Visconti Bordeaux.

I quite like the idea of some of the De Atramentis inks that are black with blue or maybe even other shades. Or maybe there are some really nice blue-blacks around like Montblanc Twilight Blue Hour or Diamine Twilight or dark navy blues like Montblanc JFK or Diamine Midnight.

If you want to be really rebellious what about Diamine Shimmering Seas?

[victordomingos]

If you want to be really rebellious what about Diamine Shimmering Seas?

Would you classify some of these new inks from Diamine as "business safe"? For instance Shimmering Seas (or some other inks from this new "sparkling" batch) would go nice for a business letter, signature or a note in a business card?

[ac12]

Depending on the pen, inks can write darker or lighter than samples, so you have to judge how the inks write in YOUR pens.
Examples:
- Waterman green is DARK in one pen, but quite a bit lighter in my other pens.
- Sheaffer turquoise is a nice turquoise in my Parker 45, but a dark teal in my Esterbrook.

Other options for you to consider:
Greens:
- Diamine Sherwood green
- Diamine Green-black
- Noodler's Zhivago (this is a DARK green-back)
Red:
- Private Reserve Black Cherry (looks like a brown to me out of the pen I used it in)
Blues:
- Private Reserve, DC SuperShow blue (a medium blue, but definitely blue, vs. a blue with a tint of purple, which most blues seem to be)
- Diamine Midnight (this is a VERY DARK blue, not a blue-black)

[inklord]

When it's supposed to last:R&k Scabiosa

[Armstrong]

I was an ink subversive myself and recently we were all told that the ink had to be black.

If they made me use black, I think I would use iron-gall blue-black inks a lot. That way I could see the blue, but it would turn black before the ink police saw it.

Are there any considerations to using an iron-gall ink? Things like pen maintenance, damage, paper selection, corrosive?

[sjkissell]

They are only good in some pens because they can be corrosive. So far I'm liking the new Stormy Grey shimmer ink by J herbin. You can't tell it shimmers unless you twist the paper, and the shimmer doesn't affect the photocopies

[inklord]

They are only good in some pens because they can be corrosive. So far I'm liking the new Stormy Grey shimmer ink by J herbin. You can't tell it shimmers unless you twist the paper, and the shimmer doesn't affect the photocopies

Nice suggestion! Modern iron gall or ferrogallic inks cerified for fountain pen use are not corrosive, though.

[AndyYNWA]

Right now I'm using Nagasawa Kobe #23 at work. A greyish blue/black.

[Sammyo]

I am currently a big fan of DeAtramentis Sapphire Blue, it is a lovely rich blue with some sheen that is also water resistant... My Parker 45 always carries it for that times at work when it's needed.

[RudyR]

Inks I would use to GET BACK AT THE MAN:

Blue: Montblanc Diamond Blue, Pelikan Edelstein Topaz
Black: Montblanc Midnight Blue (Discontinued IG Formula), J Herbin Stormy Grey