City Ink

I bought my City Ink on a special sale at Oink, but they don't seem to be selling it right now, and they have only once sold it in the refill-bottles which I bought. They currently sell it in individual mops, however. Here's a link to those.

Anyhoo, I wanted to try City Ink because it looked cool. Not much more I can say about it. I bought it because it was available in a refill bottle for only $5. Totally worth it--I bought two. The two colors I got (which were chosen by the Oink fellas) were orange (mop paint) and a blue (dye-based ink.)

One thing I want to mention now, before I go on any further, is that City Ink puts all other inks/paints to shame in respect to the packaging of their products (except for Zombie Ink, and a few others too obscure for me to know off the top of my head.) This is because City Ink features a little pull-out spout that makes it about a jillion times easier to fill your mops. Honestly, why do so few paint companies do this? Thanks to City Ink's genius/logic (whichever you prefer) I don't need gloves, a funnel, cleaning agents, or Tylenol to fill up my mops. Flip, invert, squeeze, re-vert, close. You're done. Ta-daaaaa...

Now, as for the actual product, City Ink is definitely a decent ink (at $5 a bottle, it's a really good ink.)

I ran the dye-based ink through a Molotow Transformer marker with a bullet-tip nib, and it worked like a charm. The ink flowed through it well, and I was even able to use it in my blackbook with it barely bleeding through the page. I also ran it through an Acee's Smash Supreme mop--this was a mistake. The moe-hair nib made this thin ink come out way too heavily, and that particular mop is just a catastrophe in itself. More on that in a different post, however. This ink is actually pretty pigment-heavy, and I assume it's because it's dye-based. The blue color is a lot like Grog Ink, if I had to compare it to any other kind of ink. Continuing that comparison, City Ink is darker than Grog... Cuz it's dye-based, I guess... Yeah, I've got nothing else on that...

As is to be expected with thin mop fluids, City dye-based Ink gives thin, squirrel-ey drips which I've never been a particular fan of, but others might, so its up to yallz to decide.

Now: the paint. City Ink mop paint is a good paint. That's about it. Sometimes it applies with some bubbles, which is bad on any tag, but other than that it applies nicely, although the drips aren't particularly thick. Honestly, there isn't much to say about it. It's good. If you like mop paints, buy it next time Oink sells it so cheap, if they ever do.

See the bubbles?

Pros: Super cheap, the dye is heavily-pigmented, the paint is solid, opaque, and nice color choice, and SPOUT-CAP (I cannot stress how convenient those are.)

Cons: Squirrel-ey drips, bubbles

Mr.Black

I bought my Mr.Black here.

I bought Mr.Black (the brand name of the mop paint) in Mr.Green (the name of the color) when that color first came out (along with a Mr.Purple on Oink.) It was a new color at the time, and I wanted to be the first guy on YouTube to review it (which I was--score.)

I had been wanting to try Mr.Black for a while, particularly cuz it looked cool, I wanted to see what nitro-based paints were all about, and it's made in Italy.

What did I expect? I'm not sure, now that I think of it. It was probably something that was thick and glossy. Mr.Black ink is definitely thick. It's practically like a liquid plastic when it's not dry--definitely one of the thicker paints I've ever used. This wasn't a bad thing, though, because it flowed through my threaded mop nib really nicely, and I didn't have many problems with it clogging up the nib while not being used.

The plastic-like quality of the paint actually makes it rather "gooey," as far as liquids go. By that, I particularly mean that the drips are going to have nice arcs of paint connecting them, instead of being squirrel-ey lines randomly stemming from your lines. If you're having a hard time imagining that, don't worry; I've attached a video of this ink in action.

As for the gloss, I couldn't have been more off-course. Mr.Green is probably the most matte paint I've ever ran through a mop. This isn't, of course, necessarily a bad thing; it's actually one of the nicest-looking matte paints I've used so far.

As most people were, I assume, I was curious as to what "nitro-based" meant/had to do with the quality of the paint. By my research, and by what my commenters on YouTube have told me, nitro-based inks are kind of a medium between paint and ink. They stain hard, but are very opaque. I have to say, this would fit Mr.Green as a pretty good description.

Mr.Green doesn't streak much at all, which I was actually surprised about due to it's thickness.

Pros: High-quality, matte, low-streak, very juicy drips, nice colors.

Cons: Pricy (for it's quantity, which isn't particularly much)

Overall, this is actually a really great paint. If you're looking for a very thick, juicy-drip paint, this is definitely for you. If you're just bombing for the heck of it, and aren't in the mood to put as much effort into your tags, I would go with a cheaper ink/paint, just because of the price of the Mr.Black products.

*One after-thought- DO NOT run this through a chisel-tip, flow-valve marker. It will gunk it up almost immediately.

Here's my video-review of Mr.Green.

Glop Ink (Pink Panther)

I bought this paint at oinkart, although they don't seem to be selling it any more at the moment.

Here's a video review I made of Glop Ink when I first bought it. I would still read this post, though, because my opinion of it has changed.

I bought glop ink because I wanted to try it out, and I was curious as to its quality. Other than that, there was no real reason.

The name made me think that it would be really thick. It is, and it isn't. This paint (even though its name says "ink" it's most definitely a mop paint; I cringe at the thought of what it would do to a flow-valve marker) seems to be mixed heavily with some sort of a gloss agent, so it is decently thick due to whatever they mix in with it. It is not, however, thick due to it's amount of pigment.

I'm pretty sure that this ink is the oinkart version of Smash Ink, which was the first paint I ever tried (and absolutely love.) Unfortunately, regardless as to whether or not it intended to be Smash competition, it pales in comparison.

Glop ink is, first of all, expensive for what it is. You're getting a decent amount of paint (8oz,) but it's about 12 dollars a bottle. Smash is far more expensive, but if you compare a price like this to some other mop paint like the OTR soul tip paint, you can see the price difference, despite Glop's quantity.

I wouldn't mind the price if its quality were better, but when I think of Glop Ink, the term "watery" comes to mind. I've only ever tried the one color of Glop (pink panther,) but by what I've seen on other reviews is that it's most definitely lacking in opaqueness. Whether you call it streaky, weak, watered-down, etc. the idea is pretty much the same: you're going to see patches of the surface you're writing on seep through the paint pretty often.

Another thing that I noticed with this paint is that, when applied through a moe-hair nib (I haven't ever tried it through a threaded nib,) it produces little bubbles, or a thin "foam," if you will. These bubbles eventually burst, but if they stay there for too long before popping, they will leave little holes of color on your tag, which I find irritating, to say the least.

A final thing that bothers me about this paint is that it will gunk up whatever mop you're using it in. Unless you run through your makers quickly, and tag often, this paint is going to shut up your marker, and make it hard to even refill it when you run low. This is more of a xylene-based ink thing, as Smash does it too, but it's still something to be noted.

Pros: Very glossy (this ink does top the charts in how glossy and lacquer-like it is, despite its other faults,) comes in a large quantity, decent array of colors (when it was available at oinkart, that is)

Cons: Expensive, watery, a step down from Smash Ink, and it will clog/eat/gunk up the cap of your mop/nib.

In the end, I wouldn't recommend this paint to anyone who could otherwise get their hands on Smash Ink, Mr.Black, or some others. I'm not a huge fan.

OTR 401 Soul Tip Paint

I bought this particular paint here.

This paint, although dirt cheep (as far as mop paints go) is tops. I bought myself a bottle of this paint in black, just because I wanted something to run though a drip mop mini that was pretty cheap. I expected an ink that was med-quality at best. I figured that it would be watery, as far as mop paints go, and matte.

I stand happily corrected.

This mop paint is one of the juiciest, glossiest paints I've ever tried. The liquid is rather thin, and obviously alcohol-based (you can smell the alcohol pretty easily) but I've never once had it streak on me, and the drips are thick and juicy. The ink, from the moment you apply it, is as glossy as all wet paints are. What is amazing about this ink is that once dried, it is still one of the glossiest paints I've ever used.

Pros: Cheap, super-glossy, nice drips, runs great through a threaded nib.

Cons: Especially at this price, I can't really think of any.

I would definitely suggest this paint to anyone that enjoys using drip mops. I haven't tried it through a flow-valve marker, and even though it's both thin and alcohol based (as far as mop paints go) I wouldn't suggest it, as it might clog up the nib.

Here's a video of the paint in action: