{"id":132197,"date":"2018-12-31T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=132197"},"modified":"2018-12-20T11:33:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T16:33:56","slug":"the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>We\u2019re away until January 2, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2018. Enjoy your holiday!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-125368 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1-1024x493.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1-1024x493.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1-768x370.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recently, for a background check for a visa, I had to get fingerprinted by an agent admissible to the FBI while I was still in France. <em>No, we can\u2019t fingerprint you<\/em>, the website of the Embassy of the United States in Paris stated clearly. <em>No, you can\u2019t fingerprint yourself<\/em>, the sites of the bureau-approved, USA-based channelers stated. Perhaps, I thought, I would gather my smirches\u2014all those wasted on laptop screens, medicine cabinets, and eyeglasses\u2014and dump them on a bureaucrat\u2019s desk, like payment rendered in coin.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, I fell on a National Fingerprint Collecting Clearinghouse technician named Eve Humrich. She has built a career on the fingertips of expats. I met her at her office on a mezzanine inside a squash club in Montmartre (though she travels between Paris, London, and Brussels for her clients). \u201cI need to see your ID,\u201d Humrich said. I showed my passport\u2014using one type of identification to badge me into the realm of another. Humrich kissed each digit to a lubricious black pad, then onto an official paper card. With a small magnifying lens, she inspected the results: \u201cThese are nice and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/15\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints\/\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019re away until January 2, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2018. Enjoy your holiday! Recently, for a background check for a visa, I had to get fingerprinted by an agent admissible to the FBI while I was still in France. No, we can\u2019t fingerprint you, the website of the Embassy of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44292],"tags":[34075,6119,34277,17134,34076,34074,4919,34077,2307,3966],"class_list":["post-132197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2018","tag-clear","tag-fbi","tag-fingerprints","tag-j-edgar-hoover","tag-koalas","tag-next-generation-identification-program","tag-pablo-picasso","tag-palais-de-justice","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-the-hound-of-the-baskervilles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It occurred to me that I knew approximately zilch about how an identity could be apportioned in ten parts, each the size of a petal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints by Chantel Tattoli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 31, 2018 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 2, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2018. 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Recently, for a background check for a visa, I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-12-31T14:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1713\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chantel Tattoli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chantel Tattoli\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chantel Tattoli\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/b72857973f8c094d7664bfe723fb5103\"},\"headline\":\"The Surprising History (and Future) of Fingerprints\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-31T14:00:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/the-surprising-history-and-future-of-fingerprints-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/fp1-1024x493.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Clear\",\"FBI\",\"fingerprints\",\"J. 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