Purple voting finger and smelly orange nail

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Iraq commentators go misty-eyed when they talk of the symbolic purple finger brandished by Iraqis after casting a ballot. But no one ever mentions the smelly orange nail.
Had such an abominable side-effect been better public knowledge, then I would never have enthusiastically jammed by right index finger into a pot of indelible ink at a polling station in Baghdad on election day.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The polling station, a primary school in Adhamiya, was relatively quiet and there were no voters in the room where I was standing, speaking to election officials.
I asked whether it would be all right to put my finger in the pot just for fun.
Each voter dabs purple ink on an index finger after voting to prevent multiple ballot-casting.
A smiling woman in charge said of course, then added: “Be careful you don’t stick your nose in there too as it is so long.”
How cheeky.
Brushing off the slight, I joined in the ritual that 7.5 million Iraqis went through last Saturday, walking away with a dark purple finger.
Five minutes later the ghastly orange nailed by-product started to take effect.
“What the hell is happening to my nail?” I asked my interpreter.
“Oh it turns orange,” he said, casually. “It is because of all the chemicals in the ink.”
Four days and hours of scrubbing later, the purple ink on my finger has almost gone but the Orange Nail from Hell is still there, as colourful as the moment it first appeared. The nail has also started to smell rather foul, as if something nasty is rotting on the end of my finger.

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admin @ February 5, 2009