My ear is leaking

My Cna comes out into the hallway to inform me that something was wrong with the lady’s ear in rm12. So Igo and investigate. I ask the patient what seems to be the matter. She then tells me that she was cleaning out her ear with a q-tip and she noticed that something black was coming from her ear. So I look in her ear. I can’t see anything by just looking at it. She then proceeds to tell that she tried the other ear and has the same problem with the left on. I ask for the dirty q-tip. Yep something black all over both of them. Still puzzled I was getting ready to get the odoscope to check out her ears.Till I glanced on her bedside table and noticed her q-tips in a cup with straws, scissors, pencils and PENS…i look in the cup…apparently the pen had leaked and the q-tips absorbed the ink. Viola mystery solved she was putting ink in her ear…no injury…though she was truly embarrassed