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Newguest Posted 17 years ago
Vocabulary

Blood is thicker....

Hi

One of the singers says that in his song he used some of the expressions his father used to say,eg.

"No blood is thicker than ink"

It's a song about a character (father) who has walked out on his family and, years later, meets the son he's abandoned and, probably, tells him such words.

I know there is something like "blood is thicker than water" which means that eg. your family is more important than friends. In this case I would just say it means just the opposite, i.e., that family is really no more important than other people, friends etc.
  

Top answer

What a bizarre expression. It sounds like an affectation to me. The only possible sense I can make out of it is that the father was a writer or poet who had to stay "true to his art," which for some reason meant abandoning his child.

— Delmobile

  • What a bizarre expression.
  • It sounds like an affectation to me.
  • The only possible sense I can make out of it is that the father was a writer or poet who had to stay "true to his art," which for some reason meant abandoning his child.
  • Could that be the case?
  • " Hmph Delmobile sniffs in disapproval
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8 Answers
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What a bizarre expression. It sounds like an affectation to me. The only possible sense I can make out of it is that the father was a writer or poet who had to stay "true to his art," which for some reason meant abandoning his child. Could that be the case? Or maybe he'd signed a legal, binding contract with the "ink."
Hmph Delmobile sniffs in disapproval
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Hi. I'm not sure what it may mean. It's either that his father is saying that maybe family is really not so important that's why he abandoned his family or, as you said, he thought ART is more important than a family life. Hard to say, I guess.

It's the lyrics:

I don't know you
And you don't know the half of it
I had a starring role
I was the bad guy who
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There's a whole discussion of it here. One commenter suggests the ink refers to the divorce decree. Another points out that U2 started as a Christian band and think the ink might mean the Bible.
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Hi

I don't know why, but since "blood is thicker than water" suggests that family is more important than, say, friends, then, "no blood is thicker than ink" associates me with something opposite.

take care
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Oh yes, I think that's definitely implied. "[Blood may be thicker than water, but] no blood is thicker than ink." The question is, what is the ink printed on? Maybe it's money
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Like, you have to do follow the guidelines of ink in your life even the love in your blood tells you to other way. That's a grim reality, wnd that's why song called Dirty Day
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"Blood is thinker than ink" was a phrase used by Hitler when he argued that Germans living in territories which have been ceded to other countries through the Versailles treaty would always want go back to living in Germany. Thus, those territories (e.g. Saarland, Sudentenland, Danzig) should revert to Germany, regardless of what the treaties said.

Bono, in his encyclopedic ignorance, pr
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