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Just a quick one, as I bought some DDR to make up the postage when ordering DD Purple (oh noes, more ink). I've compared Red Dragon and Oxblood before on my blog. Difference between those and DDR is subtle, to say the least. Scans are a bit more saturated than normal light but you get the idea. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oQquYmTTg6o/UtrBCjrNdqI/AAAAAAAABR4/9gUnwvHKEu8/s1600/red.jpg

I confess I'm a little on the morbid side, but if you ever wanted to know what a letter written in blood really looks like, The History Blog has posted a letter written by Dr. Alexander Monro in the blood of the notorious murderer and resurrectionist William Burke. It looks a lot like Iroshizuku Yama-Guri to me.

Im in search of red which looks as red as it is when you see a drop on a tissue....just tried Momiji Irshizuku; it looked perfect on a tissue, but disappointed when writing. I want one which looks like fresh blood( I know hat a horrible description tht is, but it's the only way I can think to describe it: a dep, blood red, but without the blue crimson overtones. I've got several reds but have yet to find the shade I want. id prefer nt to start trying to mix anything, as I get messy enough just filling....and am still looking.....any suggestions? Thanks Alex

My colleagues are used to my fountain pen habit. Some have even picked up one of their own. And everybody knows not to ask me for a pen if what they want is a biro. So usually, I don't think about it. Nothing unusual going on here, many of us like nice pens, let's get on with our working day, and that's that. This afternoon, my secretary started screaming. She recovered a little and shouted "GET THE FIRST AID KIT!" down the corridor. People came to the door, stopped as soon as they got there, and started making sharp intakes of breath. I thought someone was grievously injured. And then I realised it was me. I've just bought a "new" (to me) Waterman 53. I'd filled it the night before; what I hadn't realised was that the nib wasn't set properly. When I uncapped there was a fair bit of ink in the cap, and it blobbed straight from the nib all over the page when I first started using it, so I put it to one side. Turns out that starting it led to it leaking like...a severed artery. All the ink in the reservoir evacuated in one go (I wish I understood the physics of this - it was very impressive). I hadn't realised, but there was a pool of Diamine Oxblood all over the desk and many of my books - and worst of all, my dress and cardigan were soaking it all up from one wrist, making me look as if I'd been busy trying to end it all over some lousy Christmas results. Turns out that there's nothing in the world that looks more like fresh blood than fresh Oxblood. At least this is what my colleagues thought, and my secretary had to be stopped from calling an ambulance; in retrospect "It's not blood! It's ink! Smell it!" may not have been the most considered response. I have had to do a lot of mopping. I am taking my secretary out for dinner tomorrow and buying her a box of chocolates (we are both married women, so this is not inappropriate) to apologise for nearly giving her a heart attack. I have ruined some new notebooks, some old reference books, a load of papers for work and the diary refill I was working on. It is all over the office carpet. There is, for some reason, some up one of the walls about eight feet from my desk. I can't understand how one tiny rubber sac of ink managed to spread so far, so fast. (No jokes about "Who would have thought the old pen to have so much ink in him?", please.) I need to buy a bottle of wine for the cleaner.

Having yesterday afternoon performed an unplanned gravity-and-inertia test in our driveway, which efficiently de-surfaced my left knee, I am here to tell you that Skrip red (new) is quite a good match for fresh blood, while Diamine Poppy Red matches very fresh blood in smaller quantities, and also the de-surfaced skin region itself. Hope it helps... (If there were an Ow! emoticon, I would use it...)