So you guys all know you can make pens out of feathers, right? Well a while ago in my weirdo body-modder kind of way I decided to try and do a similar thing with fingernails (You know, FOR SCIENCE). Several weeks and broken fingernails later I discovered that such a thing is not only possible but AWESOME. Your turn!

Step 1: Supplies!

For this project you will need:

A bottle of ink
Scissors (little sharp ones) or a knife
Files
A pen
Your finger!

Step 2: Grow a Claw!

This is the step that takes the longest for obvious reasons. I recommend growing all your nails out at once, 1: because having claws is wicked awesome and 2: because by the time I had a nail long enough to do this I had broken all but two of them. Anyway, grow your nail(s) out to at least a quarter inch (about 6mm)

Step 3: Sharpen!

Time to sharpen your claw (if you hadn't done that already). Use your files (I used jewelry files but a nail file would probably work fine) to shape your nail into the nib. You want the sides of the point to curve inward slightly to make it look more like a pen nib and the tip should be flat. I found it useful to draw black lines on the nail for guides.

Step 4: PLEASE DON'T CUT YOURSELF.

VERY VERY CAREFULLY use the scissors to make a vertical cut down the length of the nail from the middle of the tip to the nail bed. Center it as well as you can (again, I found it useful to draw a guide).

Step 5: Ta Da!!

You now have a fully functional finger pen! Dip your finger in the ink, shake your finger onto some paper towels or something to get rid of some of the excess ink, but make sure there's still ink collected under your nail. Downward strokes work best, keeping your finger mostly perpendicular to the paper to avoid leaving huge droplets everywhere. Go wild!