no. liquid ink would be useless, the reason he used powder toner is because it contains some sort of metal (most likely iron). ferro stands for ferrum, the latin word for iron. the whole idea behind ferrofluid is that it contains that iron and is therefore able to be magnetized. the little spikes are actually where the magnetic fields pop out of the liquid. good vid though, other places ive seen ferro fluid need iron shavings and kerosene lol