Give You the Finger

After seeing the picture of Jerry Garcia's missing finger on Aaron's blog and playing volleyball against a guy with a missing finger last night, I got to thinking....How do they do fingerprints on these people? Do they just leave that spot on the card blank? Or do they dip the nub in some ink and roll it on? Are the a load of 9-fingered criminals running rampant?

Well, leave it to the internet to destroy my little fantasy of the perfect 9-fingered criminal race. According the FBI website (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/takingfps.html), if a person is missing a finger, you simply don't print that finger and note the amputation (or "Missing at Birth"- for some reason the FBI makes a distinction). They also have instructions for how to print people with extra fingers, webbed fingers, split thumbs (what the hell is that), and fingerprinting in general.

Speaking of fingerprints....now that DNA seems to be the deciding factor in many criminal cases now (unless your name is O.J.), will DNA samples some day replace fingerprints? Will we all be required to go down to the police station and jerk off in a cup? I guess a blood sample would probably work too.....