Defeating fingerprints

[E. ALLEN SMITH]

From:	IN%"sinclai at ecf.toronto.edu"  "SINCLAIR DOUGLAS N" 18-MAY-1996 04:15:33.26

>Not that random playing with carcinogenic chemicals is a good idea, but...
>I've found that if you use just one reagent from epoxy glue, the collagen
>in your skin will disolve.  You can sculpt it into whatever shape you want,
>and it will stay that way for an hour or so.  I don't remember if it was
>the resin or the hardener though.  This was regular 5 minute epoxy.

	I somehow doubt that the collagen is dissolving. You may be loosening
the keratinized dead skin cells and pushing them around, and then they flake
off in some length of time (probably speeded up by this treatment). Any
signs of redness, etcetera in the skin afterwards? Unusual sensitivity of the
fingertips, especially to pain?
	One thing to keep in mind is that fingerprints aren't just from the
whorl pattern that you see. They're also from that the sebaceous (oil) glands
in the skin are arranged along those whorls. You need a pretty resistant
barrier to stop these. I've been told by the son of a cop that the combination
of a pair of latex gloves with a couple layers of cotton gloves stops both the
oils and the normal pressure patterns.
	-Allen