I've done this before many, many years ago. Know that I'm in the printing industry too. Use Chinese ink — the kind used in Chinese calligraphy. It's basically the same stuff used by the ancient Egyptians for writing on papyrus. read more
Pigments and Inks Typically Used on Papyrus This is the third blog post on the Museum’s extraordinary New Kingdom papyrus, the Book of the Dead of the Goldworker Amun, Sobekmose. My colleagues previously posted blogs on what exactly papyrus is, how it was made and formatted into a Book of the Dead, and our experiments making it ourselves in the Paper Conservation Lab. read more
However, when you write on any of the three papers I recommended, the ink sits on the surface of the paper and doesn’t soak in. The result is beautifully crisp lettering! I actually haven’t found any inks that don’t interact well with Rhodia, Clairefontaine, or Tomoe River. read more