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In hopes of tracking down your answer, we typed the whole unwieldy phrase "fingerprints remain same during lifetime" into the Yahoo! Search box. Our results did not disappoint. The first web page was from CrimTrac, an agency created to help the Australian police in forensic matters. There we learned that there are two fundamental principles to the science of fingerprinting -- uniqueness and immutability. Uniqueness, of course, refers to the fact that no two individuals, even identical twins, have identical sets of fingerprints. Immutability refers to the fact that friction ridges, the little lines and swirls
that compose fingerprints, do not change naturally during a person's lifetime. An embryo's fingerprints are fully formed by the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy and remain much the same until death. The only changes the site notes (apart from changing in size as we grow) are due to "accident, mutilation or skin disease." Of course, this led us to wonder if someone could intentionally alter their prints. The web site of the West Virginia State Police provided our answer: Though many have tried to alter their fingerprints to prevent criminal identification, no one is known to have been successful. One famous criminal, John Dillinger, tried acid on his fingertips, yet was successfully identified upon his death. Another
tried skin grafting, but again his attempt at eluding detection was unsuccessful. By all accounts, attempts at altering fingerprints have usually brought the individual nothing but intense physical pain. Seems the power of the print is pretty indisputable.
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