The Whorls That Tell Our Story
As I got out of the cab and walked to the Departure gates of Bangalore International Airport, I realised I needed the boarding pass loaded in DigiYatra app to pass through the main entrance security. I looked at my phone screen, a whirl of green light and my face got recognised. The DigiYatra gate had very few passengers as I walked up to it. I stared at the identification pillar. It stared back and the gates opened with a message “Welcome Srinivasan.”
I glided in, noted the gate number and walked right to my gate. Well in time, I sat down and opened my laptop. It asked me for my fingerprint and the colourful desktop screen bloomed in front of me. In that moment I realised: I was walking through life with passwords written not on paper or in memory, but on my own body.
I was the ‘Eye’dentification for my phone, my face was my ‘Aadhar’ at the gate pillar and most interestingly, my fingerprints for my laptop. How unique was I !
I looked at my palm with its lines, which some say dictated my past and future, and then at those small nearly invisible whorls and rings at the tip of my fingers. Wow! All of a sudden a vortex of thoughts swirled. Nowhere was I, this body mind complex ever asked physically to show an identification like a badge or a ID card - my very body was the ID.
Like waves my mind brought in more and more ideas. It was time to put it in words and I started typing.
Fingerprints
Have you ever paused to look at your fingertip, really looked? Those tiny swirls, loops, and arches etched into your skin, so ordinary that we barely notice them. And yet, they carry mysteries that have fascinated scientists, detectives, and even palm readers for centuries.
What exactly are Fingerprints?
They are patterns formed by ridges on the skin of our fingertips (and also palms, toes, and soles). These ridges begin developing when a baby is still in the mother’s womb, around the 10th week of pregnancy. By the time the baby is about 6 months old in the womb, the fingerprints are set, never to change again.
They grow larger as you grow, but the pattern itself remains the same. Even if you get a cut, once the skin heals, the ridges return. But I wondered Why? As I searched (Googled if you may) I found out that they’re built into the very structure of the skin, locked in at multiple layers. Think of them as the “grain” of wood—carved into the material itself. That’s why even if the top layer of your skin is scraped or burned, when it heals, the exact same ridge pattern re-emerges.
It’s like nature has stored the master design below, ready to be copied again and again. This brought me to a lovely metaphor.
Why do we have fingerprints?
Nature is a waste warrior. It rarely wastes effort. Fingerprints didn’t arrive because the universe wanted us to have identity cards - they arrived for grip. Our fingerprints are friction ridges which give our fingers gave us a better grip on branches, tools, and the world around us, more friction and the ability to sense texture. Have you ever tried to button a shirt with surgical gloves on? It would be hopeless. The same would happen with smooth, flat fingers. Their permanence is simply the by-product of how deeply they’re etched into the layers of our skin.
Yes, fingerprints aren’t little bumps sitting on the skin like sand dunes you can blow away. They’re more like the Grand Canyon etched into the landscape of your fingertip. The topsoil (outer skin) can come and go with erosion, they cant flatten the Grand Canyon. The canyon’s shape stays because it’s cut deep into the rock (your dermis).
So when new skin grows, it grows along the same permanent blueprint. That’s why a scar that damages the dermis can alter a fingerprint—but ordinary wear, cuts, or peeling skin never will.
Kinds of Fingerprints
Now, what kinds of fingerprints are there? Broadly, scientists classify them into three basic types:
• Loops (the most common, about 65% of people)
• Whorls (around 30%)
• Arches (the rarest, only about 5%)
The Uniqueness
But we all have been told that fingerprints are really unique. Yes, that is absolutely true. No two people in the world, not even identical twins, have been found to share the same fingerprint pattern. Twins share DNA, but fingerprints are shaped not just by genes but also by the random conditions in the womb—like the pressure of amniotic fluid or how the baby moves against the uterine wall.
The actual “design work” on one’s finger tip gets scribbled with nature’s own little accidents, making each fingertip unrepeatable.
Fingerprints do have a connection with DNA though. DNA provides the instructions that guide the growth of skin, but the final swirls are partly the result of chance. That’s why DNA and fingerprints complement each other in forensics. DNA can tell you who a person is with incredible precision. Fingerprints can tell you where they’ve been and what they’ve touched. Together, they form a powerful duo in solving crimes.
Some of us may wonder, if fingerprints are so unique, why can’t humans just create fake ones? We have seen so many Hollywood and Bollywood movies where it is done. Yes, people have tried! Fake fingerprints made of silicone or glue can sometimes fool basic scanners. But high-end systems now check for things like pulse, skin moisture, and ridge depth.
What are Biometrics?
That brings us to Biometrics. In modern technology, biometrics literally means the measurement and analysis of unique physical (like fingerprints, faces, irises) or behavioral (like typing rhythm, gait, voice) characteristics to identify or verify a person's identity, essentially using "who you are" for secure access, replacing passwords or tokens.
It is equivalent to using something from your body—your fingerprint, your face, your iris—as a password. Unlike a PIN or typed password, it can’t be forgotten or (easily) copied. It’s you, baked into your biology.
Fingerprints are the oldest natural biometric system—long before computers, the universe had already given us a built-in, unchangeable ID.
Science meets Spirituality
When science reaches the edge of explanation, some people see only mystery. Others see God. Fingerprints sit right at that border. They are biological ridges with a practical function, yet also tiny, unrepeatable signatures that inspire us to ask bigger questions: Why uniqueness? Why permanence? Is it just grip and friction? Or is it, as some traditions believe, the handwriting of the divine?” So when the spiritual text calls fingerprints a “divine password,” it’s actually a surprisingly accurate metaphor.
So, the next time you glance at your fingertips, maybe you’ll see them differently. They are not just ridges of skin. They’re your life-long identity card, your personal seal, your invisible grip on the world. Science explains them, forensics uses them, philosophy wonders about them and perhaps, in an emphatic way, they remind us of our own uniqueness in the vast crowd of humanity.
And just when you think fingerprints belong only to humans, nature surprises us…
Fun Facts
Do animals have fingerprints? Surprisingly, yes, though not many. Some of our close cousins in the animal kingdom share them: Chimpanzees and gorillas have fingerprints very similar to humans.
And Koalas are the real shocker. Their fingerprints are so close to ours that even under a microscope, forensic experts can get fooled.
Imagine an Australian crime scene where the suspect turns out to be a koala!
Most other animals don’t have them because they don’t need the same kind of delicate grip or texture sensing that we do. For instance, cats and dogs rely more on claws and paw pads. Birds don’t need ridges to hold branches—they’ve got talons.
Fingerprints, in that sense, are a very specialized adaptation for certain lifestyles.
A Point to Ponder
If our identity is decided before birth, is our life also written? Probably fingerprints are new signatures written on every life, by a hand greater than ours. Or is this just one of nature’s many accidents? You decide……..
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