What is tattoo Tuesday about?
October 29, 2019Although it was first patented in 1888, and again in 1938 and 1943, the first ballpoint pens were sold in the U.S. on this date in 1945.
There was some jostling to get the first ballpoint pen to market, and the winner was the Reynolds International Pen Company. When the pen was introduced in Gimbel Bros. in New York, TIME magazine wrote,
In Manhattan’s Gimbel Bros., Inc., thousands of people all but trampled one another last week to spend $12.50 each for a new fountain pen. The pen was made by Chicago’s Reynolds International Pen Co. In full-page ads, Gimbel’s modestly hailed it as the “fantastic, atomic era, miraculous pen.” It had a tiny ball bearing instead of a point, was guaranteed to need refilling only once every two years, would write under water (handy for mermaids), on paper, cloth, plastic or blotters.
I looked for a ballpoint pen tattoo, but only found these cousins . . .
Gunsmoke and Knitting 
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