Diamine Registrars Ink

Are you, or have you ever been married? Or have you been the Best Man or Principal Bridesmaid at a wedding?

Even if you haven’t, you’ll surely have noticed the bit in the wedding ceremony that’s noted in the order of service as “Signing the Register” (or, as I once saw it in a church in the Thames Valley, they were “Singeing the Register”, but we let them off because she walked into church to the “Bridle March”)

Anyway, if you’ve ever registered hatches, matches or dispatches, you’ll possibly have noted that the registrar – be they a secular registrar, or a cleric of the established Church – will have urged you to “use my pen”. There’s a reason for this, beyond the fact that the registrar or clergyman possibly has a nicer pen than you – it’s the ink, rather than the pen, that they’re urging you to use,

So what is special about registrar’s ink? Well, it can’t be rubbed out, or washed off, and it doesn’t fade. What is written, stays written. When you sign a legal document as spouse, parent, relict, or witness, you are signing (or, indeed, “singeing”) something that will bind you forever, and will be available to your children’s-children’s-children when they decide to look up their ancestry.

A colleague told me, recently, that his birth certificate was typed – well, yes, it would be, because it’s a copy of the original. The real problem is translating the handwritten original into text – far too often, I’ve seen “Nmynmmgy” as the bride’s or bridegroom.’s signature.

Write Here are pleased to be able to supply registrar’s ink, either online or from our shop in Shrewsbury (UK).

Please note – this ink appears blue black, but when dry oxidises to black.