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I have found that Diamine Oxblood gradually loses its redness over time even in the bottle, eventually turning brown. In the pen, it can even turn black if you're not careful. So can anybody recommend a dignified red ink, similar in color to oxblood that keeps its redness over time? I've tried Sailor Jentle Brown with the same results.

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.