The Palmistry of Fingerprints

Well, what I'd like to present to you today is a description of how to identify your fingerprint patterns. Um, there's some confusion in some parts of the world about the best way to classify fingerprint patterns and there's some disagreement between different palmists and hand readers about what the criteria are for classifying each of the different fingerprint pattern types. So, I thought I'd put together a presentation uh so we can definitively uh be clear about which fingerprint patterns are to be called what, how to identify them, and therefore begin to get the the foundations right for our diagnosis as hand readers and interpreters of those fingerprint patterns.

So, let me just bring it up on the screen here. I've done a a PowerPoint presentation which I think will really illuminate this whole subject for us and and I hope you can see that there. Um it's basically based upon the work that I've done for the book that I've got um which is going to be coming out in January 2026 and I will talk a little bit more about that a little bit later on. Um but basically the um fingerprint patterns are very important to get right about how they are formed and what their shapes are, how to classify them as the basis for your interpretation of them.

So the first thing that we can do is we can basically look and see if we've got uh the what kind of fingerprint patterns we've got at all. So maybe the first thing for you to do is to actually look at your own fingerprint patterns and just look at the end of your fingers and see what you can see there. You should be able to see um you should be able to see the u some foot shape of pattern on your fingerprint. If you're looking at your index finger, maybe that's the easiest thing to do. Um and you'll notice that you've got little grooves in the fingerprints that make particular kinds of shapes. So have a look at those. You might need a torch. You might need to use your phone. Actually, it's a very useful way of doing that. Or you may need a magnifying glass. Or if you've got poor eyesight, take a photograph of your uh fingerprint and then zoom in on the photograph. That might be an easy way to do it as well. Uh and just see what you can see where the ridges are. And you should find that they all uh curve around the um top of the palm like that, of the end of the finger like that. So that should be an easy thing for you to see um when you're looking at it. print and you'll find that there are little triangular formations maybe down here in this part of the hand, this part of the fingertip. So have a look for those and see what you can see because that's the that's the basis for looking at the fingerprint patterns is to look at the fingerprint patterns on the hands themselves. And you'll notice that there are different types of fingerprint patterns. And in fact, you may even have different fingerprint patterns on different fingers. Um, and here's a brief outline of the different fingerprint patterns that there are and a summary of what we're going to be looking at uh to differentiate the loops from the worlds from the arches.

All right. So, what should we be covering in this presentation? Well, the first thing we're going to be doing is we're going to be uh look we'll learning how to identify the different fingerprint patterns. And in fact, there are seven main fingerprint pattern types. three uh main fingerprint patterns and four minor fingerprint patterns. And it's important to know which fingerprint patterns are common and which fingerprint patterns are more rare. And we shall discuss that as we go through the presentation. And I'm also going to spend some time on looking at some unusual fingerprint patterns that you very occasionally come across. So there are some variations to those seven predominant fingerprint patterns. Um and we'll look take some time to look at those. And then finally, um, by way of segueing into the book that I've written, how to interpret fingerprint patterns, which of course is the subject of the book itself.

But before we get into all of that, we really need to do some background history on on theics and so we can understand where that comes from. Um and although there is some precedent within Chinese cultures and in with ind within Indian cultures for looking at fingerprint patterns um most of the material that's discussed in those um parts of the world regarding fingerprint patterns are usually quite superstitious. There's a 15th century manuscript that I've seen u from India which has got descriptions of of depictions of whales on the fingertips. But it's not until 1684 in Europe that we get the first attempts to describe and annotate what the fingerprint patterns are. And this is the first known um anatomical drawing of a thumb with a whirl fingerprint pattern as we can quite clearly see on the p on the hand over there. Um so there's definitely a whirl pattern going on in this fingerprint here. This was drawn by drawn by a guy called Bidloo in 1684 and is the known first known scientific representation or understanding of the fact that there are even fingerprint patterns on the hand. So um that's that's that's the he wasn't the only ones. There's a guy called Malfichi drawing it in Italian anatomist as well but Bidloo is famous for having done that particular drawing.

But it wasn't for another 150 years before the fingerprint patterns were uh classified for the first time. And that was the done by a guy called Yan Perkingi who was a uh doing a research paper into the significance of the eye and vision. Uh he was a Czech doctor and he produced a a thesis which he talked about nine different types of fingerprint patterns. He went rather overboard on subclassifying all the worlds. but he is nonetheless stands there as being the first person to classify fingerprint patterns. So it's really quite late that we got an idea of the diversity of the different types of fingerprint patterns to be found on the fingers.

Then the other thing that needed to be done was also to ascertain whether or not the fingerprint patterns changed and this was not firmly established until about 1890. William Hershel um was the grandson of the William Hershel who discovered Uranus and he undertook an an essay in uh proving the consistency of the fingerprint by taking his uh taking his handprints over a 30-year period. So if we look at the handprints on over here, we can see that this one was taken in 1860 and this one was taken in 1890. So there's this 30-year time difference between uh the handprint on the left and the handprint on the right and conclusively proving that the the fingerprint patterns of the hand stay the same even though as can be evidenced as well the lines on the hands change or can change quite dramatically. So that was a kind of an important verification point and that basically then con kind of gave uh the the green light to people like Francis Golton and Francis Golton is the um person upon whom all forensic knowledge about fingerprint patterns rest because he was the one who did the definitive classification of fingerprints in his book fingerprints of 1892 and his subsequent book fingerprint directories of 1895. And Francis Golton was the um the cousin of Charles Darwin um and he was very interested in morphological manifestations of genetics as well and that's spurred the whole subject of dmatoglyphics which kind of evolved uh in the early 20th century. Um so Francis Golton is the founding father essentially of dematoglyphics and also of forensic science. So he was the one who classified fingerprint patterns into their primary three types which is arches, loops and wells. And he noted that those were the predominant fingerprint pattern types um to be found in amongst all different kinds of peoples from all around the world. And it is him that determined how it is that we are going to classify the fingerprint patterns.

So let's have a look at how we go about doing that. So the key thing to look at when you're looking at the fingerprint patterns is look for the tri radius. The triadius is a small triangular formation which you will find on the side of a loop fingerprint pattern. A loop fingerprint pattern has a little triangular formation to its side like that. Um so you look for the tri radius and the fingerprint pattern is classified according to the number of triadi that it has.

So let's start with the loop fingerprint pattern since the loop is the most common fingerprint pattern. And I've got three examples of the loop fingerprint pattern for you here. Um and you can quite clearly see the uh tri radius formation right here right there on the left side of the print. So that's the tri radius. And then you can see the curvature of the print going up and around like that. So when you're looking at a fingerprint pattern, you're looking for two things. You're looking for the shape of the pattern itself and you're looking for the number of triadi. As you can see from the loop pattern, the the ridges go up there and they recurve around and go back again. So there's this recurving of the uh loop pattern that makes it quite distinctive. That is what defines a loop. That and having one try radius and and so it's one tri radius and a recurving loop. Now that triadius may be in various different locations. You can see from this one that the triadius is actually quite centrally located. The central location of it does not matter. The position of the tri radius is not as important. The fact is it only has one tri radius. And we can see again there is a rec curvature of the ridges in the center of that. And sometimes the triadius is right over to the side as you can see in this particular example here. So this is a much much bigger loop pattern. It's got many more ridges in it. The ridge count on this particular B will be much higher. But the clear thing as you can see quite clearly there is this recurving of the loop in the middle. So the loop is to be uh clearly seen by the recurving of the bridges to make a loop formation the larat of the loop and also that it has one tri radius. So that was Golton's definition of a loop fingerprint pattern that it has one triadius.

Now if you compare that to the arch fingerprint pattern, what we notice in the arch fingerprint pattern is there is no such triadius. So the the loop pattern is got one tri radius but the arch pattern has no tri radius at all. It is just a little humpback bridge that basically rises up in the middle with no triangulation point. And here's it's a sample of nine different formations of arches. And you can see that they all have this sort of uh rising up in the middle. They look like a little humpback bridge or they look like a kind of maybe like a hill. You could think of it like that. They all have that kind of consistency about them. Um and the and some of these are quite high and some of these are quite low. Um and some of these you could even argue aren't even an arch. I would probably argue that this one has got a tri radius just there and that's actually a recurving uh recurving ridge right there. And the fact that that's a recurving ridge makes that actually a loop and not an arch. So you do have to be very careful how you look for the looking at these things as to what's going on. But if it's to be an arch proper, there is no triadius and there is no recurving ridge.

Now that's not true of the world fingerprint pattern. So the well fingerprint pattern very distinctively has two triadi. So what you can see with the with the with the whirl here is you got two triadi one on either side of the spiral formation. So again we're looking for the shape. Look for the shape. The shape is like this spiral in the middle. Uh you can see it's very distinctive in its formation around the middle of the pattern like this. Um sometimes they're concentric circles like in this one or sometimes it's a spiral. Um you the detail of that doesn't really matter too much from our point of view as as hand readers. Um what we want to see is the spiral formation. One and two, we notice that there are not just one triadius. There's not uh there are in fact two triadi as you can see here. Normally they're placed quite on the side of the of the of the of the of the well in the middle. So you can see them like that. Um so they're quite clearly marked there like that. Um but sometimes they are displaced slightly more towards the center of the world like this one on the right. So there's slight variations in their positions. But what makes a whale a well is it has this spiral-shaped formation in the middle and it also has two triadi and it is the double trousius formation that is what gton used to classify the fingerprint pattern as a well.

Now there are lots of different shapes of wells. Um as you can see in this particular example here, some wells are very elongated like the three at the bottom. Um some wells are very tight and very constrained and very circular like the ones at the top. So there's all sorts of different variations, but as you can see with all of these examples, what they all have in common is they have some kind of spiraling shape in the middle, and they all have two triadi, one on either side of the print. So it's the triadius and the shape of the spiral in the middle that gives the whirl the definition of it being a whirl.

So the arch and the loop and the whirl are very clear and easy to differentiate based upon their shape and based upon the triadi. And in fact these three patterns together actually account for about 85% of all the fingerprint patterns that you're going to see. That is the majority of fingerprint patterns are one or other of these three. The predominant fingerprint pattern in the world is the loop. Although there are some populations in the world with a large numbers of worlds. Uh and the arch is the the less common of these three main patterns. But what you find is people either have loops and arches or they have loops and whirls. You very rarely find arches and whs together in the same hand. Um so and that's but it becomes an interesting discussion itself about the distributions of the different fingerprint patterns to be found in different peoples around the world.

All right. So let's have a look at the minor fingerprint patterns of which there are four. the radial loop, the double loop, the peacock's eye or central pocket whirl, and the tented arch.

Well, first of all, we're going to look at is the ner loop and the radial loop. Now, to be fair to Golton, he did identify uh the radial loop as a distinctive pattern. And I'll show you with a way in which is it is distinctive. So, anal loop basically goes around here like this. If you can see on these two fingers, the owner loop basically goes from the little finger side towards the thumb. it points in that particular direction. Uh the radial loop on the other hand is open on the radial side or the thumb side of the hand as you can see here. It's definitely a loop because there is a triadius right there and it's got a recurving ridge in the middle. So it's definitely a loop but what you can see is the directionality of the loop is quite different. What the radial loop does is it comes from the outside, the thumb side towards the inner part of the hand, whereas all the other loops go the opposite direction. The onner loop is by far and away the most common loop pattern to find and radial loops are actually quite rare, only occurring on about 5% of all digits. However, what is particularly notable about the uh radial loop is whilst it occurs quite commonly on the index finger, it occurs on about uh 22% of index fingerprints. So, it's the third most common fingerprint pattern you're going to find on the index finger. It is actually really very rare on all the other digits. Occasionally you will see it on the middle finger but you almost never see it on the ring finger, on the thumb or on the little finger. Now this is really important to to note because um the radial loop is often overlooked by many palists. They don't consider it to be an important pattern because of this kind of skewed distribution. But it's really important to note particularly when you find it on the index finger and it is probably the most significant fingerprint band to be found on the index finger. Um the fact that it doesn't occur on the other fingers is not really important because the psychological significance of this fingerprint pattern is enhanced by the fact it's on the finger finger to do with selfidentity. So that's if you aren't familiar with that, you really need to kind of understand the significance of of the radial loop and the significance of the index finger and work that out together. It doesn't really matter about the other finger so much because you're hardly ever going to see it. In fact, um I've been looking hands for so long, I've only actually ever seen one uh radial loop on a on a little finger and that was last week. So um it's it's an incredibly rare thing to find uh radial loops on any other digits other than the index finger. And what that also means is that we actually don't really know what that signifies at the moment because we just don't have enough examples to corroborate any possible interpretation. However, the the radial loop on the index finger is known to us and is a highly significant pattern. When I'm reading people's hands, the people the hands of people of those who've got radial loops basically they find it is the probably the most revelatory part of the handwritten consultation that I do with them. It's a very very potent pattern to uh find if you find it on the index finger. Um and unsurprisingly because it occurs on about a third about 22% of the index finger, it's really quite a common experience that you're going to be reading when you're actually reading people's hands. So if you're not familiar with that, you do do look into that.

All right. The next uh minor pattern we're going to look at is the double loop. sometimes called the twinn loop. In forensic circles, they call it the twin loop. And you can see the difference between a double loop and a and a loop because well, there's the loop going up and around like that. And a double loop is actually made up of two loops. What that also means is it's made up of two triadi. So you find two triadi, one on either side of the pattern. So, it's kind of had two triadous formations rather like a whirl. And in some circles, some people will count it as a whirl. I don't think that's actually correct. It's actually a form of loop. And it's actually two loops. It occurs on about 3% of index fingers. So again, it's a relatively uncommon pattern to find on the hand, almost non-existent on the other three digits. The most common place that it occurs is actually on the thumb at about 13% of thumb. So, you'll see this relatively frequently when you're looking at people's thumbs, but hardly at all anywhere else. Um and as I said, the thing about the double loop is you can see it's made up of two loops. And then each loop, of course, every loop is has one triadius. So, if you've got two loops, you're going to have two triadi. So, there are two distinctive triadius formations. uh when you're looking at a double loop formation, but that doesn't make it a whirl. And and there's a very big difference between a pattern like this one where you can see two big loops going in two different directions. And if you actually look at that sort of symbolically, you can see that it's almost like a wave that's crashed over. And moreover, what's happening also there's a very strong undertoe going on underneath that pattern as well. So the double loop creates this kind of tumultu and confusion for the person. Um and for the spiritually minded amongst you, you probably already noticed that actually the double loop looks very much like a yin-yang sign. Um so let's look at that one there. You can kind of draw it around it like that. And you've got a kind of yin-yang sign going on in this this particular formation. So um that's also a very powerful symbolism for interpreting the uh significance of the double loop fingerprint pattern particularly when that's found on the index finger. So it's not very common when it's found on the on the index finger but people with double loops on their index finger tend to be very spiritually minded people. Um so the double loop is is a loop pattern and it breaks the rule of loops have of have one tri radius. It does have two tri radi but that's because it's two loops uh working together on the same print.

The next variant pattern is the central pocket whirl. Sometimes called a peacock's eye. In palry circles they tend to call it a peacock's eye. I think that comes from Indian palmetry traditions because of course the peacock is a native bird for that part of the world. Um I was looking at peacocks recently and I was thinking looking at them going this tail feathers don't look anything like peacock's eye. So that's the idea that it looks like the tail feather of a peacock and I actually don't agree with that. Um what it does look like to me is it looks like a whirl inside a loop. So let's have a look at that pattern ling again. So we've got the char radius on the side over there. And then we've got a loop pattern that comes up and around like that. So that's your classic formation for a loop. So it is a loop but it's got a whirl inside it. And in addition to that whirl, what makes you what becomes clear that it is in fact a whale is you got this secondary triadius in the middle of the pattern. So it conforms to all the definitions of a well. It has a spiral shape in the middle and it has two tri radi. And if you got two tri radii and you have a a world a spiral pattern in the middle then you've got a well. So that's basically what it is. It's not a kind of loop. It's actually a kind of whale. Um and for practical purposes I think it's worth c characterizing this as a whirl. Even on this one, even though the spiral isn't that well formed, you can see there's a triangular formation right there, as well as the extra limit triadus, which is going to be down here. So, the the peacock's eye or the compound or the central pocket well is I think it's it's best known. That's the term that they use in forensic science, the central pocket well. So, try and get used to using that. Basically, it indicates that this is a form of well. And as you can see from this pattern, that's very kind of clear when you sort of step back from the pattern a little bit. As I said earlier, it doesn't really matter where the um triadius is. Is it on the side or in the middle? If there's a sparry shape and two triadi, it's a whirl. Now, the peacock's eye is only relatively common on the ring finger. The central pocket world sometimes will sit on the ring finger about 6%, but it's extremely rare on other fingerprint patterns. almost never seen on the thumb, almost never seen on the middle finger. And it's probably worth noting that um the because it's a world inside a loop, this can actually be an ulna central pocket world or it can be a radial central pocket world. Um and clearly if it's going to be a radial central pocket well, that is going to happen more commonly on the index finger. And that is in fact what you find in the hands of people like Jimmyi Hendris.

All right. The tented arch fingerprint pattern. So this is probably the fingerprint pattern that causes the most confusion for people or the most and the most debate and argument for people. As I said earlier when we're talking about the loops, the most important thing about the loop is the recurving ridge. Yes, it has one tri radius, but it also has a recurving ridge. And what you can see from these patterns is the tented arch. It has one triadius and the tri radius is kind of quite centrally located like there, but it has no recurving ridges. Instead, the ridges rise up and flow over the top of that central spike. Now, when they were discussing this in the 19th century, everyone was had tents and they were going camping um in the army and stuff. And so, they've viewed it as a kind of tent, like a sort of tent pole with the canvas of the tent thrown over the top. And that's why it's called a tented arch. Um it looks like a tent over a pole. Um as I say, so that's the key thing. There is no recurvature of the ridges whatsoever. If there is a recurving ridge, like we saw in that example with the arch, then it's not a tented arch. It's a loop. The fact that this this triadius is centrally located is neither here nor there. That's not the primary thing. The absence of a recurving ridge is what makes this a tented arch. So like a loop, it's got one tri radius, but unlike a loop, there's no recurving ridge. And the tented arch is the most rare fingerprint pattern of all. It only occurs on about 1% of all fingerprint patterns. And it and it's really uncommon even on the index finger. It's the it is the rarest fingerprint pattern of all. So here you can see some different examples of it. Sometimes it has a very high ridge like that going right up the middle. Um as you can see no recurving no recurving ridges there. It's going right up and over. And sometimes that triadus is much smaller. So as you can see here there's a little triangular formation going there. Hardly any little ridge at all. And but it's still a little spike that's going up. So there are different degrees of um elevation of the tented arch which you may take some significance into. Um but basically the tented arch is such a rare pattern. Um the basically it's uncommon on the index finger around 4% of index fingers. But not only is it uncommon on the index finger, it's very rare on the middle finger, extremely rare on the ring finger, and almost non-existent on the little finger, and never found on the thumb. 0.06% uh on the basis of population studies of about 2 million people is a pretty conclusive indication that it's almost non-existent on the thumb. So what's what's significant about all of this is that therefore what that means is you will very rarely find more than one tented arch on a hand. If you see more than one tented arch on the hand, you'll probably misclassifying the fingerprint pattern. You'll never see it on the thumb. You'll never see it on the little finger. You'll probably not see it on the ring finger. Occasionally, yes, you do see it on the middle finger. I've seen a few of those. Um but it's really rare even there. So, it's be it's to have more than one tented arch is al already a very rare and special thing. If you're going to find it, it's going to be on the index finger. So, be very careful about how you classify this fingerprint pattern. Look for the recurving ridge and don't mclassify this print. Um, it's really important if you're going to get your diagnostics right about the significance of this particular pattern.

So, as I said, the these four minor patterns are really very rare indeed. It's very rare that you're going to find u more than about 5% of fingerprint patterns are going to be radial loops. About 4% of fingerprint patterns are double loops. About 3% of fingerprint patterns are central pocket walls. And about 1% of fingerprint patterns are tented arches. So they are really really rare. That's only what's that 12 13% of fingerprint patterns are of these four types of minor fingerprint patterns. So you put that together with the pre prevalence of the three major fingerprint patterns and these statistics are for a European British population and you'll see that altogether these fingerprint patterns actually make up 99% of all known fingerprint patterns. So basically once you've classified these different seven and you got them quite clear, you're basically going to have covered just about every fingerprint pattern that you're going to come across in the normal course of a reader's day. It'd be really rare to find something other than those seven. But once you've got those seven, you've kind of got an idea of the parameters that you're working with from the point of view of interpretation. And it's really important to know something of the uh frequency of the distributions to these patterns because you won't understand the significance of a radial loop on the index finger if you think it's just a the same as a loop or it could occur just as randomly on that finger as anything else. Once you understand the rarity of the fingerprint pattern, then you start to understand its significance within the consciousness of that person. And um Angelus J. Washington um in the in the US is a big uh exponent of this particular approach to dematography assessment but looking for the most unusual fingerprint patterns because it is the fact that unusual people will have unusual fingerprint patterns and exceptional people will have exceptional fingerprint patterns.

Now having said that there are some extraordinary weird variant fingerprint patterns that can be found as well. So um I'm just going to go through those with you. They got weird names. Newent loops, lateral pocket loops, composites and accidental ridges off the end syndrome and dmatoglyphic dissociation. Now don't worry too much about the details. I'll show you some examples in a moment, but all these variations comprise together less than 1% of the fingerprint patterns you're going to come across, but it's always an exciting day when you do find them.

So, let's have a look at these weird deviant fingerprint patterns, and you'll get an idea what I'm talking about. One of the rarest patterns is called a Newton loop. Um, and you can see that from the diagram there. The nuisant loop basically is a loop pattern where the loop itself kind of is aligned more horizontally on the palm rather than rising up or it's kind of falling down a little bit as you can see in this particular example here. So there is this kind of um it's sometimes called a falling loop. Um so it's basically like an overwatery loop pattern. And of course the Newton loop can either be radial or ulna. Um so you need to take that into consideration if you do find find one of these. These occur in about 0.86% of male fingerprint patterns. So less than 1% of fingerprint patterns will have this. Um notably uh Malcolm X, the uh renowned famous 1960s black rights activist u politician had two Newton loops and his hand. So worth having a look at his handprints if you get a chance to.

All right. The next pattern is called a lateral pocket loop. So again, a variation on the loop, but this time the loop there are not just one loop, there are actually two loops. So what you get is a loop um coming over sometimes falling over like that with another loop tucked underneath it as well. So this is um like a double loop really except note the difference between this and a double loop is that with a lateral pocket loop the two loops are coming from the same source. They're not coming from two different directions. They're coming from the same directionality. Uh Scotland Yard statistics say this is an incredibly rare pattern and it occurs only on less than 0.2% fingerprint patterns. So, it's a very uh rare fingerprint pattern to find.

Around the same degree of raress is what's called a composite pattern. Now, a composite pattern is one that seems to be composed of many different little parts to it. Um although I don't think it's quite as confusing as um Scotland Yard seems to make out because clearly it's got two triadi. Clearly, it's got some kind of spiraly formation in the middle. So, to my eye, this is actually a variation on the whirl. However, sometimes you do get really quite extraordinary formations as you can see with this particular example in this print here. And he goes up and he goes round and he goes down, he goes up and he goes round. It's kind of very weird contorted sort of distorted patternings within that. What you tend to find with um with these composite patterns is they actually have about three triadi. There's one over there. There'll be there'll be one up there's one up here like that. And there'll be another one down here. We can't see that. It's off the off the print. But basically what you've got here is at least three triadi. This is kind of almost like a double loop uh pattern with uh a kind of falling loop pattern over the top of it. I don't really quite know how to describe that. Um, so it's a very unusual shape indeed. Certainly anyone with these kind of patterns should be very wary of leaving their fingerprint patterns anywhere because they're so rare they'll be very easy to um to identify them um should that be necessary. So look at the shape of the pattern and describe the shape of the pattern. That's the way to proceed if you find one of those. But composite patterns are unusual and they kind of form a kind of category of strangely weird and unusual patterns. Um, as do accidentals, although again it seems to me that an accidental is just a variant form of well pattern. Although the triadi particularly um well uh easily to see in these particular ones, but it in order to make a well-shaped pattern at all, there must be a triadius there. But these are only found on 0.046% 0 46% of ink print patterns cord in Scotland Yard. So they are incredibly rare as well. Um and therefore not something that I would expect you to see um very frequently. Just know that they exist.

And then there are occasions when actually you can't work out what the fingerprint pattern is at all. Shaman and Ala produced a couple of examples in their seminal book, Dematographics of Medical Disorders. As you can see from the illustrations on the left, sometimes the ridges just don't really form into a particular pattern at all. Um, and it becomes unclear as to what they actually are. And sometimes, as within the one on the right, there seems to be so much dissociation of the ridges themselves that it's completely unable to actually identify the fingerprint pattern at all. If you can't identify the fingerprint pattern, you can't you can't say anything about it. That's as simple as that really. Um, the only significant thing maybe with the ones from Shaman and Alera is that um though they took a lot of handprints of people with genetic disorders. So there may be some genetic malfformation associated with that particular skin ridge pattern. Don't know. I never seen them in in person. Just know that they exist.

This one I have encountered and this is probably the weirdest fingerprint pattern of all. It's called ridges off the end syndrome. There was a guy called TJ David who did some papers about it in the early 1970s. He found a family with lots of different examples of it. He proved conclusively that this pattern is a genetic pattern um because of its incidents in this in this particular family. But what I want you to notice is look at this. It's kind of like an extremely tall tented arch, which is how people have talked about it as very tall tended arch patterns. You can see it does that. But what it does that's different from a tented arch is instead of the ridges recurving over the top like we get the tented arch, you could probably argue that one actually is a tended arch since it does recurve over the top. Uh what we get is these ridges that go off the end of the finger. And that's why it's called ridges off the end of the ridges off the end syndrome because scientists are really good at making up really good names for things. There you go. So it's kind of going up there like that. So that is the nature of that pattern. It's called ridges off the end syndrome. And honestly I think it's almost impossible to make any kind of significant interpretation of that. Um this particular woman uh who I knew very well actually um and actually lived with her for a while um had no relatives with this particular formation. You can see again look at these patterns on on the letters. I've just gone put them through 90° so you can really see the way that the ridges sort of surge off the end of the fingers like that. They just don't conform to the usual parameters of a fingerprint pattern. And that that's what's interesting about that is, you know, we get used to what we consider to be normal and then we find an example of something that just steps us right outside um that categorization. You can see she had loops on the thumbs, but all the other fingerprint patterns where had this sort of strange tented arch uh type appearance like that she had there. So, um, ridges off the end syndrome, an extraordinarily rare, uh, fingerprint patterning that you very rarely get. And if you ever see one, please let me know and send me a copy of the handprints.

All right. So, now we're going to get on to my book. Um because what I've been explaining to you is that essentially the first three or four chapters of the book. Um I've given you a bit of an overview of the history of of fingerprint patterns. I've given you a little bit of an overview of different types of dermatoglyphic terminology, some my understanding of the anthropology of fingerprint patterns and looking at some of these different uh mal malfformations and permutations within fingerprint patterns. So the book basically I've written is a uh dis clear and well thorough exposition on the meaning and significance of fingerprint patterns. So starting with the forensic science then starting then going through the sort of medical dematoglyphic literature then looking at anthropological studies on the fingerprint patterns um and then once we've got an idea of the distributions of the fingerprint patterns from the Scot from the figures we've got from Scotland Yard and from American sources of fingerprint databases then we've got an idea of how the fingerprint patterns are distributed amongst the fingers. And so the bulk of the book is actually about the interpretation of the fingerprint patterns. And that was in fact was the original title for this book when I wrote it in 1991. The interpretation of dmatoglyphics. So the bulk of the book actually concerns itself with the significance of the fingerprint patterns in terms of their psychological effect and not only that looking at them in the general sense but also looking at the significance of the uh fingerprints on each of the fingers. So there are the seven main fingerprint patterns. Um and they are all discussed in turn the psychological significance of the fingerprint patterns. So that's basically giving you a general outline of what these fingerprint patterns signify and then a thorough exposition on the significance of each of the fingerprint patterns on each of the digits. Um, so this book was basically published in 1991 and I used it as a study book for my students and I gave it out as a handout for them. People like Johnny Fincham, Linsteel and Felicity Booth all studied this book 30 years ago. Um, and basically that forms the basis for their own approach to hand reading today.

I also discussed the palmer dematoglyphics. So in addition to the fingerprint patterns that you have on the fingers, there are about 17 or 18 distinctive patterns that you get in the palms of your hands as well. So I give a presentation on the significance of these as well. So you better look not only on your fingers but also in the palms of your hand to see what those mean. And um not to be not to be outdone, I also include the scientific findings about fingerprint patterns in the medical dematoglyphic literature. So they've discovered all sorts of things about the significance of fingerprint patterns for genetic possibilities of disease, congenital heart defects, cognitive impairments, um and things like Down syndrome as well. So there are there's a lot of scientific literature that has been produced that's they've investigated the fingerprint patterns and found these patterns significant in certain conditions. The bibliography contains a list of all all the most useful uh scientific references and journals that I found uh that you can look up for yourself as well.

But when we're looking at the hand from a from a genetic point of view, the genetics of the hand I think are just the physiological component of the karmic point of view. So that I think there is a there is a sort of karmic level to be interpretation of the fingerprint pads too and I include a chapter on that as well. Uh and lastly the independes we've got um an appendix on the diff different distributions of the fingerprint patterns. Um so that in as I said that takes statistics from my own studies and from Scotland Yard statistics in 1905 1954 and 1977. Um, I'm actually going to offer that as a free PDF. So, if you'd like a copy of that, send me an email to reddragon.co.nz or to master hand reader@gmail. And if you send me that, I will send you a free copy of that PDF. So, you'll have a a document where you can look at the distributions of the fingerprint patterns for yourself so you know how common each of the fingerprint patterns are. And then the second appendix looks at the embryogenesis of the fingerprint patterns um and so you can understand when and how they're formed in the womb because the fingerprint patterns are formed in the womb by the 16th week of gestation.

And then to top it off, I've also included some analyses of some famous people's fingerprint patterns. As I mentioned earlier on, uh Andrew Washington in the US has done some remarkable statistical studies on the distribution of fingerprint patterns and has pointed out that there are certain people who are quite remarkable who have quite remarkable fingerprint patterns. John Lennon, Jimmyi Hendris, and Malcolm X being three of those. So now that we know what their fingerprint patterns are, I've done an analysis of their personality based upon their fingerprints patterns alone to show you how you can do that for yourself from your own assessment of your fingerprint patterns.

All right. And as I mentioned, this book has been um studied by many people for many decades. So this book is not just a kind of theoretical outpouring of my mind from 30 years ago. It's was well tested in those days and has had been road tested for 30 years um by various professional hand readers around the world. Um and also Richard Webster and Andrew Fitz Herbert have endorsed the book as well. And you may know Andrew Fitzer, one of probably the best palists that have been who's still around, written some extensively good books in the 70s and 80s. So yeah, so it's highly recommended as a as a study text and you will find it the most comprehensive book on fingerprint patterns um that you will find. Um, it is available from the 27th of January in 2026. And if you can't wait for that order along, you can actually pre-order your book from Collective Inc. Books, um, which I think will take you through to the Amazon website. So, you can actually pre-order it on Amazon and get it delivered to your door quickly. Um, it is the most definitive guide to the fingerprint patterns and the palm patterns of your hands. And it is an indispensable u book to have in your collection and be a very useful uh book for your hand reading practice as well. Um, so yeah, get your orders in now or get yourself ready to buy on the 27th of January in 2026.

If you'd like to find out more about myself, well, you're on my YouTube channel, so you probably already know about me there. Um, if you I have a website, handreading.nz. I'm on Facebook and Instagram, of course. Um, and if you'd like to actually study hand reading with me, then I invite you to apply at patreon.com, which is where I do my tutoring. Um, I run monthly print reading classes. I have study text and handouts for people who are keen and enthusiastic to learn about handwriting. And if you're interested in becoming a professional hand reader, then I strongly suggest you get in touch with handreading international.com, the H, which is um the overriding body that's been set up by myself, Felicity Booth, uh Johnny Fincham, and Lin Seal to manage uh the burgeoning interest in hand reading and to try and get some kind of standardization in our knowledge around the world. So, if that interests you, then come go to the handriting international.com website.

I hope this has been of interest to you. I hope you've learned something about your fingerprint patterns. I hope you've learned how to identify your fingerprint patterns and I hope you got enough interest in that that you will take your studies further. Like and subscribe to the channel to hear and that always helps of course. But if you'd like to get a copy of the PDF then drop me an email and I will send that to you. And if you're interested in studying handwritten, come and see me at Patreon. All right. Thank you for your time, attention.