Lickable Business Cards

No joke here folks. I actually experimented with this idea in 1974 and had modest success. I was a silkscreen artist at the time and was experimenting with ink alternatives.

My first attemps were with chocolate (fudge ice cream syrup). I created a whole series of proto-type business cards. Some were designed to resemble a fudgicle-pop, others said "lickem-here" with a patch of chocolate. Some had conventional typeface but with a panel of lick- able chocolate on the back. The printed typeface was also chocolate. To prevent stickiness each card was inter- leafed with a thin sheet of velum paper. They were quite stable and I still have some of them stored to this day.

Other examples were ketchup and mustard. Food coloring had to be added to intensify the color density.

One really weird idea I tried was just using clear cooking oil with some type of stabilizer to facilitate with the printing process. The result created a controlled graphic typeface which was oily. Subtle oil stain-like graphics. I tested out various card stocks from very porous to hard, smooth,finishes. I got my inspiration for that one looking at a grease stained pizza box. I was trying at the time, to infuse the oil with the smell of pepperoni pizza. I never applied to get a patent, I was trying to expand the boundries of artistic invention.