• This is the second ink out of a set of three I bought to celebrate finishing a longer piece of fiction writing,  This is the colour of the three that I really wanted.  I love red inks, probably a bit of a holdover when I did more editing and marking by hand.  When I was relatively new to the PhD one of my collaborators used to hand papers back with practically every other word crossed out and you’d think that would make me more sensitive to seeing red ink but he was so darned good at it that as a former editor myself I just had to stand there in awe of how absurdly good he was at condensing text so we could fit in more science to a 7 page limit. So it’s definitely more fond memory than grad school trauma!

Diamine Red Dragon fountain pen ink bottle and swatch.

Similar to Blush (not pictured but basically a shade lighter), I felt like Red Dragon reminded me of blood while I was dong the larger swatches because it has a tendency to look a bit brown at the edge until it dries.  I don’t really notice the effect as much when writing with the dip pen, though.

A lot of the red inks that people recommend on top 10 ink lists are darker.  Colours that are lovely, but they wouldn’t stand out against black text the way I want a red to work because of the editing connection.  So I’ve been slowly collecting brighter red inks.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ones closest to this one are other Diamine ones.

A set of fountain pen ink swatches photographed together for comparison. On the top row is Diamine Red Lustre and Diamine Writer’s blood. In the centre is Diamine Red Dragon. At the bottom is Diamine Carousel and Pilot Iroshizuku Momiji.

• Red Lustre has shimmer and has given me no end of headaches in pens so I’ll be glad when the sample is done because I think I’m down to only being able to use it in my Pelikan since it clogged in every other pen I tried to use.  Red dragon looks pretty similar to Red Lustre but without the shimmer, and it may actually the same base?
• Writer’s blood is beautiful but it’s just not an editing red. That is, it’s too dark to stand out enough against black printed text. Which makes it lovely for the way I actually use it but it doesn’t scratch the red ink itch right for me.
• Carousel from inkvent has a shiny almost lacquered vibe that I love, but it’s a pigment ink so I’m a little more reluctant to use it in all of my regular writers. It may wind up in my red Preppy when I run out of what’s in the cartridge, probably 3 years from now at my current rate. I didn’t bother to swatch the Preppy cartridge but it’s brighter.
• Momiji is just outright more pink and I love it but I don’t even really think of it as a red because it’s so pink.

Red Dragon is a nice no-nonsense red that works consistently and while it’s still maybe is still a touch darker than the perfect editing red in my mind, it should be lovely for journal writing which is how I’m actually going to use it.  And generally speaking Diamine inks are on the inexpensive side of things: I paid less than CAD $10 for 30ml before taxes.  Will this be the last red ink I ever buy?  Probably not.  I still think it would be fun to have one that was a touch brighter or one that had a bit more shading.  But I like it a lot and since the idea was to treat myself for a writing accomplishment, I’m happy to have something that gives me more of an “editing red” vibe than a “goth vampire writing” vibe (sorry Writer’s Blood).  Will I ever go back to editing on paper?  Likely not.  But apparently I’m never going to stop loving red ink.