A few years back my firm was doing some consulting for an airline. We had to get fingerprinted and go through an FBI background check because we would be working in the hangar.
Worked security on campus and got finger printed for that. The second time was applying for a spouse visa to Taiwan, plus the constant index finger prints (both right and left) when entering Japan.
And I had a USB memory stick with a fingerprint scan.
I was fingerprinted back in the '60s, when I had to register for the draft.
And again in the early 2000s, when employed as a consultant by the Cleveland Clinic.
They kept them and filed them.
They did that just for fun.
Twice, both related to my professional license.
The first time was during my senior year of pharmacy school; the National Board required us all to have a complete set of fingerprints on file in case there was any doubt about our identity (i.e. if two recent photographs weren’t sufficient). Some people who do this for a living came to our school at a certain place and time, and we all lined up and had it done.
I also had it done in 2010 when I decided to get licensed in a third state. In that case, I was referred to a private investigator’s office in town and had it done there.
During our junior year, one of my classmates had to be fingerprinted because she applied for (and got) a summer job on an Indian reservation; she had no idea where to go to have this done, so she went to the county jail, which was not far from campus, and asked if she could have it done there. :o They all said it was the first time they’d ever heard of someone walking into the jail and asking to be fingerprinted. I don’t remember where she ended up having it done.
And of course I was footprinted at birth.
I was fingerprinted in elementary school in the 70’s. I believe they printed all of us kids in the school gym. Apparently this was somehow supposed to help in case Stranger Danger lured me into his panel van.
Thinking about it now, I guess it mainly would have helped to identify my corpse 
[Edit: Not sure where SeaDragonTattoo was raised but I noticed their location and this was also in Chicago suburbia]
Only twice. The first time, at the age of 70, when getting a Texas state ID. The second time a couple months ago when exiting Cambodia through immigration control. Cambodia fingerprints random people coming in or going out, hit and miss, with no apparent pattern.
When my son was in grade school in the 1980s, the school had a program where every child was fingerpinted, “for their own protection”. I refused to let them fingerprint him. That was in rural Kansas.
I think this is like asking, “Have you ever moved out of your parents’ house?” Few people can avoid it forever.
When I worked for ETrade per SEC regulations.
When I went to volunteer at my son’s school.
Renewing my drivers license (thumb only).
Buying a gun in within the city limits (thumb only, I think)
Every time I buy ammunition within the city limits (thumb only)
Yes, four or five times. Once when I was a kid, they did it at my school. All the children had it done. Most recently, one of the clients I work for required it. The other times were cashing checks at banks where I didn’t have an account.
In order to get a HazMat certification for a Commercial Driver License, you need to get fingerprinted and have a background check by Homeland Security. 4 places in Ohio, the closest 100 miles away, and it cost $90. Paid for it twice, once when I got my CDL, the second when I renewed it. Dropped my HazMat endorsement the last time I renewed my license, it didn’t make sense to spend the money and lose the day of work.
The first time I got it done, the tech input my license info as she took my prints digitally, to associate the two of them. She said it would have everything about me in the system. I told her it wouldn’t work, I didn’t exist. She laughed, then the screen came up saying “No information found.” She was shocked, and I looked at her and got to say “I told you so.” ( She messed up my license number when she typed it in. Pure coincidence, but the look on her face when she looked at me was priceless.)
I worked for decades as a sewing machine operator, in an ironing board cover factory. I put binding on 1000 covers each day. Holding the material as you sew, it ‘slides’ through your fingers. Then I put myself through a bit of college, even though I was an older age. A part of the process to become certified in nursing is having the police fingerprint you and have a background check done. I kept getting recalled back to the police station for more fingerprinting. They were eventually doing my fingers as carefully as possible. Then they asked me about my work history. They said I no longer had fingerprints from the decades of handling stiff material. I guess it rubbed them off. They allowed me to be certified anyway. I sometimes wonder if my fingerprints will reemerge.
This.
I was printed the old-fashioned way when I joined the Army, ink and all. In the hospital, they took thumbprints when I had my son and put it on a car with his footprints in case there was any dispute, but it was voluntary, and I think DNA actually would have settled any serious questions.
To work at the preschool at one of the local synagogues, which I just started doing, I was electronically fingerprinted, which was out of voluntary compliance the preschool does with some kind of homeland security regulations. Employees are supposed to either have a passport of a secure driver’s license (which Indiana offers, and I got last year, but I have a passport too) or other secure ID as well (like a military ID). I regular driver’s license or student ID won’t work for the photo ID.
A lot of children are fingerprinted as part of Ident-I-kits.
2010 Census I was a crew leader and had to do the fingerprinting (and my supervisor did mine).
3 times I had to get fingerprinted to get a no-criminal-record report from the FBI to get a Russian residency visa. Those times I asked the police to do it. It’s very hard to do your own fingerprints.
Sure have. When I first came to Thailand with Peace Corps in 1988, I had to obtain a federal security clearance. That required me to be fingerprinted by a law-enforcement agency such as the local police and have them send in the prints. I selected the campus police at my old undergrad university for the job. It may have been the first such request they ever had.
Then I’ve been fingerprinted to enter various countries, but that’s usually not a full-fingerprint situation – for example, I think Japan and China require just a single finger, IIRC. The wife has been fingerprinted for entrance to countries before too and received a full fingerprinting for her US visas. Plus for her present Immigrant Visa application, she had to go to Royal Thai Police HQ for a full fingerprinting in connection with the required police-clearance certificate.
EDIT: I see TokyoBayer above mentions both index fingers for Japan. Thought I’d remembered just the one, but I’ll defer to him. Anyway, I was definitely fingerprinted for Japan.
When I was young I was arrested and fingerprinted before they let me leave. The weird thing was that they poured fly spray over my hands so I could get the fingerprint ink off.
Yes, when I was arrested. And once when I was a Boy Scout, a troop-mate was getting his law enforcement merit badge, and fingerprinted a bunch of us, which were submitted to the FBI, as I understood it.
As a foreigner, every time I enter the US. Thankfully it’s a scan rather than an ink print, but the end result is that my finger prints are in a database somewhere.
Interestingly I’ve obtained a security clearance twice (about 25 years apart) and wasn’t required to be fingerprinted on either occasion.
I had to drive 3 hours round trip just to get fingerprinted. Twice. First time for the US green card application, second time for the citizenship application. That’s how far the closest USCIS office is - and both times it was a 7am appointment.
Other than that, many times for getting access to NASA centers & facilities, and of course, every time I entered the US before becoming a citizen.
Just once, in 1970, when I applied for a one year visa for Switzerland. I had to go to a local RCMP office to have it done. This was presumably new since I didn’t have to when I spent 6 months there in 1967.
As far as I can tell, I no longer have discernible fingerprints after nearly 80 years of wear on them. Lack of fingerprints makes it very hard to open some plastic bags, like the produce bags at the supermarket. Same for my wife.