# Do Fingerprints Wear Down as We Age? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 23, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639 "2016-07-23T00:36:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/1 "2016-07-23T00:36:31Z")
I’ve been using my fingers for over fifty years, and I can still see the lines of my fingerprints looking up close. But the tips of my fingers feel very smooth, and I’m having a much harder time these days picking up individual pieces of paper, and turning pages. I can’t get a grip without licking my fingers which I never used to do. But of all the symptoms of aging, I have never heard of fingerprints wearing away. Does that even happen? Is this a normal thing? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/2 "2016-07-23T00:48:56Z")
> **[Can You Lose Your Fingerprints?](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lose-your-fingerprints/)** > > A Singaporean cancer patient was detained by U.S. customs because his cancer treatment had made his fingerprints disappear. A forensic expert explains other ways people can lose--intentionally and unintentionally--one of their unique identifiers ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/3 "2016-07-23T00:54:36Z")
Yes they do. My wife is going to do some relief work in a school office. She had to get refinger printed. 10 years ago getting her prints was not a problem. This time her fingers tips were smooth almost no ridges. They had to try several time and never got a good set of prints. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/4 "2016-07-23T01:00:49Z")
At 79.5 I have trouble opening plastic bags because my prints have practically disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/5 "2016-07-23T11:24:37Z")
Wow. That link listed secretaries, but really any low grade office worker is going to handle lots of paper. Guess I wasn’t imaging things about this. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/6 "2016-07-23T13:09:02Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > Yes they do. > My wife is going to do some relief work in a school office. She had to get refinger printed. 10 years ago getting her prints was not a problem. This time her fingers tips were smooth almost no ridges. They had to try several time and never got a good set of prints. This is pretty much what happened when I had to get my fingerprints rescanned for a new security badge a month or so ago. The security guy said that it is harder to get good print-scans from older people. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/7 "2016-07-23T15:35:46Z")
I’m 70, and my fingerprints are gradually being replaced by parallel vertical furrows. And yeah, I have to lick my fingers to handle paper and paper bags, especially counting paper money. This has gotta be an advantage for some elderly criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/8 "2016-07-24T22:23:08Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This has gotta be an advantage for some elderly criminals. There aren’t many. Crime is largely something done by young people (mostly young men). Violent or threatened violence crime, that is. I’m sure there are elderly con-men, phone scammers, etc. out there. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/9 "2016-07-24T22:34:24Z")
Like Bernie Madoff. ---
**Author:** ![Vicsage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e68b1a/32.png) [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/10 "2016-07-24T22:51:13Z")
Went to the site Duckster sent me. I know some one who has been a quadriplegic for decades (injured in her teens). She has no prints at all, she was told the lack of use reduces prints. Also bricklayers and people who use their hands a lot, usually from what I’ve seen, have prominent prints. Maybe they disappear for a time during a lot of work, but when the grow back, they grow back very prominent. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/11 "2016-07-25T20:14:17Z")
Huh. Reading that link is informative. It may explain the delay I’m experiencing with getting my TSA precheck lined up. My husband is older than me, and after paying the money and getting his prints taken, got his Known Traveler Number less than a day later. It has been three weeks plus for me and I’m still waiting. Their website says it’s something to do with a delay in fingerprint processing. I’ve been a secretary since 1974 and maybe my fingerprints have been sanded away by decades of paper-handling. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/12 "2016-07-28T16:29:37Z")
I just called TSA and they said my fingerprints couldn’t be read, so the FBI is doing a “name-based” background check on me instead, which could take up to two months. I’ll have to get out a magnifying glass and look at my fingertips. I’ll bet all the fingerprint ridges are worn off. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-fingerprints-wear-down-as-we-age/760639/13 "2016-07-28T16:49:04Z")
My wife’s prints are very faint. The article had a good point, to apply only light pressure to the scanners so as to not collapse the ridges and furrows. I’ll pass that on to her, but also it’s a good general reminder.