I went to Papier Plume and chose chaos

The Jean-Pierre Lepine Totem

A few weeks ago I went to New Orleans—and like every other pen nerd, I went to Papier Plume. The last time I was there was pre-pandemic, when I picked up the Jean-Pierre Lepine Indigo, and this time I was planning on picking up some notecards and maybe some of their custom ink.

But then I got this instead:

hey good news i can now photograph stuff in a sterile void

YES. EXCELLENT. This is the Jean-Pierre Lepine Totem and it is glorious.

The Totem is from the more experimental side of the Jean-Pierre Lepine oeuvre—the side that also includes the Free Ride, a pen that has a wheel on it:

If you have to ask why a pen needs a wheel you are probably not the target market. I am definitely that market; it was a close call between the two and I will get this one next time I’m in town or if Papier Plume brings it to my local pen show HINT HINT. (Image credit: Papier Plume.)

The Totem is marketed as a ballpoint and takes Parker-style refills; I put one of those Monteverde P42 capless rollerball refills in mine. You turn the back of the pen to deploy the refill.

The grip is made up of all these bulb-like things, which require some adjusting but are still easier for me to hold than the Lamy 2000.¹ My preferred grip is “the first bulb.”

The tip of the roller does not stick out a huge amount from the body due to the shape of the final chrome bulb:

This means you can’t really write at a super low angle, but whatever. It’s also a little clicky at times, which, assuming I get motivated enough, I will fix with an o-ring based on something I read the Pen Addict say about another pen.²

But again: whatever. This pen still rules.

Now, I think a common question with more sculptural/art pens is “how do you use that,” which is missing the point of the pen as an art form but deserves an answer nonetheless. Off the top of my head, here are three circumstances in which this is the best pen to use:

1. You need to sign revised estate documents and you want to appear just eccentric enough to cause your heirs to fight endlessly about whether this revision is valid while you watch and laugh because you plan on faking your own death.

2. You have to go to court and sign some important documents and also you are a federal judge who has a lifetime appointment and has decided that being awesome is more important than getting appointed to the Supreme Court.

3. Job interview.

But the list could go on forever, because the answer-below-the-answer is “any circumstance, if you have enough confidence.”

And I did get some Alexa Pulitzer cards too. Here they are:

BECAUSE, KYLE, I’M THE KING AND IT’S MY PARTY SO I WILL SIT WHEREVER I WANT. NOW DO THE DANCE I LIKE!

All in all, 10/10 trip to Papier Plume, would recommend.

1. Twice a year I take my Lamy 2000 out of storage, determined to make it work, and twice a year I am unable to figure out how to hold it comfortably. I look like a vaudeville actor trying to hold a banana in a bit about how it’s hard to hold a banana.

2. I feel like this came from a recent review of a Kickstarter pen he was disappointed in and wanted to link to it (and also see exactly how to fix it) but I can’t find it when searching the blog. It might have been something he said on Twitch. I am 90% sure I did not dream this. Please help me out if you know what I’m talking about.