As women, many of us take great care of our fingernails, by ensuring they are clean, polished, well - groomed and even ‘sparkle’!

But if we pause a bit longer and look at intricate skin patterns on our hands, we may realise how much more important our fingerprints are!!

What are fingerprints really used for?

• Fingerprints are so important, as they have the unique identification of individuals embedded in the skin formation.

• Fingerprints have been used by law enforcement agencies for more than a century in solving crimes.

• Fingerprints are used to prevent/ detect forged signatures.

• Fingerprints are used to identify accident victims.

• In this day & age (especially in jobs that require security checks) fingerprints are used to verify job applicants, registered Voters, and provide personalised access to everything from ATM’s to computers, to every hand-held device like your telephone.

• Some security checks use fingerprints to open doors!

• Modern fingerprinting techniques have evolved from ‘manual matching’ to fast technology enhanced checks that can check millions of records simultaneously, matching faces, backgrounds and other identifiable characteristics to each search made.

It is truly amazing how our whole lives can be read with the click of a button once we have records of our fingertips in a national ID database. 

The question now is for us to ask ourselves how well we treasure what documents we put our fingerprints on

We also must become much more aware of the use of our fingertips, as a means of reflecting our true character, which means that wherever we put our fingerprints, it is our seal of character at play.

 Cherish your fingerprints & keep your ‘seal of character’ intact!!