[thecodont]

A century or so ago, my Uncle Fred, in school, dipped the pigtail of the girl sitting in front of him in the ink well on his desk.

I'm not that old, but I remember in grade school we had flip-top metal desks with wooden tops, and inside this sort of desk was a round bracket to hold an inkwell. Older grade school and high school kids at the time were using those newfangled "cartridge" fountain pens. With these pens you had a little plastic ink cartridge you popped in, instead of having to dip the pen into a bottle of ink.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“...those newfangled “cartridge” fountain pens...”

I had a fountain pen, but it had to be filled from a bottle of ink. Never forget the time I spilled a bottle of ink in the on the carpet in the middle of the living room. But we had a neighbor who owned a dry cleaners; dad called him and got it all out, no stain...and I did not get my butt beat. :)