Do fingerprints grow back?

[northwind]

I rather foolishly picked up a very hot bit of aluminium bar last week, and now I've got some lovely smooth fingers on my left hand... Which is fine, but it feels a little odd, it's much more exaggerated than guitar fingers. Am I going to be permanently un-fingerprintable, or do they grow back?

Well it depends on how bad the burn was, I've burnt the end of my fingers once trying to fry a egg while drunk. They came back, but I imagine if you have bad burns which scar then maybe not.

[rictus01]

Na you'll be fine Andy, regularly end up with cuts burns grazed fingers, all heal fine deep scaring to the dermal layer will leave scaring, but generally blistering protects against that.

Cheers Mark.

if they dont................ i may have a little job for you

[northwind]

Cheers. Not exactly worried, it's just a bit odd feeling just now... I've got a wee bit on my left hand that never healed right after a soldering iron burn (I dropped the iron, and caught it in mid iron reflexively, by the tip ) and it's a similiar sort of situation- not a particularily bad burn but very fast because of the high heat. My fingertips are 9/10 scar tissue anyway after 20 years of bm tests...

I used to lose my fingerprints when I was rock climbing a bit.
They always grew back, but, yeah, it felt strange. Not exactly the same as the way you lost them though.

I made a mistake with a tin snips once, and completely changed the finger prints on my left index finger, they all seem to be gravitationally drawn to the scar now.

They always came back though, if not exactly the same.

[dirtydog]

yeah they will grow back, when I was running a chippy I had only a couple of finger prints left due to constantly handling hot things and dipping my finger tips into 180C cooking oil (not intentionally) and yes they will feel a bit strange for a little while

For a less painfull way of removing fingerprints, though it does take some time, use pineapple juice

If you watch Se7en the film the bad guy cuts his fingure prints off. Im sure it also mentions that he must have to keep doing it. Now I know thats a film but id guess there is some factual info behind it.

Ive burnt one off before on something out of the oven and its grown back, though i know what you mean with it feeling odd, its kinda really really smoot when it shouldnt be .

Another thing, im pretty sure they grow back with the same print, but i think that depends on how deep the damage goes. Because as you might know the first mm of skin is already dead, its only if you go deeper than that that you get to the really sensitive live bit.

For now you are safe from the police anyway North

[northwind]

Or alternatively, they'll collar me for every crime committed by a fingerprintless man in the last 10 years