Mark Lee a.k.a. Dr. Fingerprint
Could dermatoglyphics—the study of fingerprints—reveal a child (or an adult’s) innate strengths and weaknesses? Mark Lee, a.k.a. Dr. Fingerprint, tells Lisa Cam about how the study of the ridges on your fingers can shed light what kind of person you are.
HK: Magazine: What is dermatoglyphics?
Mark Lee: Dermatoglyphics is the scientific study of fingerprints. The term was coined by Dr. Harold Cummins, the father of American fingerprint analysis. All primates have ridged skin. In humans and animals, dermatoglyphs are present on fingers, palms, toes and soles. This helps shed light on a critical period of embryogenesis, which occurs between four weeks and five months, when the architecture of the major organ systems is developing. Fingerprints provide a map to the cognitive process of the brain.
HK: Magazine: How did this become your career?
ML: It started when I started my own family and I became curious about how to educate my own children. I am a nutritionist by trade, and I found that all the studies out there about child education were observation-based. As a man of science, I searched for something that had more scientific data and I found that dermatoglyphics struck that chord with me in that sense. I went to study in Taiwan, and after I returned I juggled my job at the hospital with dermatoglyphics as a hobby. It was awhile until the job satisfaction and viability as a business exceeded my job at the hospital.
HK: Magazine: Can you test adults? Do you advise it?
ML: Certainly. We encourage parents to have a joint analysis with their children. It is key to understanding how to communicate with their own children and understand them. On the other hand, once when I was delivering a seminar in Macau about dermatolgyphics, quite a few students came to Hong Kong to get tested. Your dermatoglyphs are fully formed by the fifth month of incubation in your mother’s womb and don’t change after that, so it’s definitely worth it.
HK: Magazine: Do criminals or mentally unstable people have a specific pattern on their prints?
ML: Unusual dermatoglyphic patterns often relate to genetic disorders, such as Downs and Turner syndromes. Though certain patterns are prominent, dermatoglyphics isn’t a diagnostic tool. There are studies out there that find relationships between certain dermatoglyphic traits and criminal tendencies. Their research found that there were particular print patterns that were prominent among criminals and that people with these patterns tend to be more self-centered. And when there were certain situations where their morals came between their personal interests, it was easier for these individuals to forego their moral training and place their personal interests first. However, that is not indicative of who a person is—there are a lot of other factors such as environment and nurture that comes into play.
HK Magazine: Which fingerprint patterns are rare, and what do they mean?
ML: No prints are exactly the same, but arch patterns appear in about 10 to 20 percent of the population. People with a loop in their arches—those people who are strong in abstract and creative thinking. Areas of art, science and medicine would interest people with these traits. There are patterns that are so rare that we don’t have a lot of data on them. We call these prints “accidentals,” and because of how rare they are, what they represent in different cognitive parts of the brain are still unclear.