Thriller writers are always trying to come up with scientific-sounding ways to eradicate prints from a character’s fingertips. Here’s an actual technique, but it’s far from fun — not least because immigration officers couldn’t figure out how to deal with it.
Cancer patient held at airport for missing fingerprint.
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Singapore cancer patient was held for four hours by immigration officials in the United States when they could not detect his fingerprints — which had apparently disappeared because of a drug he was taking.
The incident, highlighted in the Annals of Oncology, was reported by the patient’s doctor, Tan Eng Huat, who advised cancer patients taking this drug to carry a doctor’s letter when traveling to the United States.
“In December 2008, after more than three years of capecitabine, he went to the United States to visit his relatives… He was allowed to enter after the custom officers were satisfied that he was not a security threat.”
I feel safer already.
Every criminal ever is now taking this drug.
It probably works better than the various surgical removal strategies that left famous criminals with marks on their fingertips that were as distinctive as fingerprints.