FINGERPRINT PATTERNS

Fingerprints consist of patterns formed by the ridges that are separated by grooves and furrows and cover the skin of the fingertips. Although they provide the most reliable form of identification as no two person's prints are the same, identification is not the only reason for their existence. If your fingertip skin were highly polished and smoothly, your capacity for tactile sensation would be greatly reduced.

This imprinted part of your skin has no hairs or sebaceous glands to impede contact with the surface, making them perfectly adapted for touch. Human fingertips are an incredible repository of sensory nerves. They are corrugated and dotted with sweat glands, and have as many as 18 sweat pores per millimetre. This helps lubricate the skin, keeping fingertips supple and enhancing your ability to grasp and touch. As you touch objects with your fingertips, the rough ridges, along with your sensory nerves, create friction between your hand and the object, which helps to improve your perception of temperature, texture and solidity.

There are four main types of fingerprint patterns. In a loop pattern, which is the common type, the ridges begin at one side of the finger, curve back sharply, and end on the same side. The ridges in a whorl pattern have a circular form. In an arch pattern, the ridges extend from one side of the finger to the other, rising in the centre. An accidental pattern, as the name suggests, has no specific form. Many fingerprints combine loops , whorls and arches.


Here are some fascinating fingerprint facts:

• No two people have identical fingerprints.
• Fingerprints begin to form in the second or third month of the life of a foetus.
• Each fingertip has a different pattern, and even the corresponding fingertips on an individual's left and right hands do not match.
• Fingerprints do change in size as you mature but the patterns never change.
• If you injure the tip of a finger, the pattern will return once the finger is healed.