Does loving pens count as a fandom?

Okay, I'll admit it, I don't really think of pens as a fandom. But in the same vein as writers loving concept art or playlists, I really love having fancy tools with which to write. Exhibit A: fountain pens.

I'll also admit that said fancy tools aren't my first choice when I'm working. I write on Google Docs so that I can put comments all over my work and insert said concept art for inspiration. I brainstorm on my phone. But a few years ago, my brilliant cousin, who counts jetpens.com among her favorite stores, gave me a fountain pen and a tube of refills, among other things, for a Christmas present. I don't quite use it on a normal basis, as pink ink isn't the most practical all the time, but I really love it and as something I wouldn't buy for myself, it really is amazing.

The fountain pen I have is the Pilot Petit1, which is a tiny mini pen that's about four inches when it's got its cap on and about five inches when its cap is stuck to the back (in other words, when I'm actually writing). I got pink ink for it and have gone through three cartridges in the couple of years since I got it.  You can see a few pictures of the pen, first capped and then uncapped, with a U.S. quarter for scale.

This here is how the pen looks like when I take it apart. The lid comes off, of course, and you can unscrew the bottom to expose the... nib section? Pure pen? I have no idea how to express the object on the left. Anyway, you can see the nib at the top and then the ink feed in the middle (that's where you hold the pen) and finally the almost empty cartridge (I'm holding out). Isn't it beautiful how you can take things apart and put them together? You can take the cartridge out, too, but then ink drops splatter and you don't want that. I'm being really nerdy, amn't I?

In actuality, I really love this pen, even if I wouldn't have bought it for myself. I've been wasting way too much time on jetpens.com which has much better pictures than I do and has tons of superspecialized data about tons of pens like these! They've also got a blog to let you in on some of their superspecialized secrets of the pen fandom (penners? pen snobs?) I'd definitely recommend this if you have any writer friends you want to give a gift to! They've got a pack of eight for $3.75 each, so you can give them out to all your friends! I just think fountain pens are such a sophisticated and nerdy (at the same time) gift.

Happy writing!
~Citali

P.S. This is a picture from the JetPens website of the set of pens. They're slightly different from mine in that its cap is transparent and not colored, since mine is an earlier edition (hear that pen-snobbery? Someone better stop me before I go too deep into this fandom). I wish I owned all of these; I've just got the pink one for now, with a blue cartridge and a black bottle of ink I'll refill my existing cartridge with. So I'll have a pink pen with black ink (or blue).