Mara Johnson-Groh, 33, a freelance science writer in British Columbia, Canada, lost her fingerprints about a decade ago when she started rock climbing—particularly her middle and ring fingers, where a lot of pressure is exerted on the rock.
She says she regularly hears stories of fellow climbers having problems trying to use their fingerprints to log in to phones and computers. (She uses her thumb, which is usually pretty intact.) But it became an issue for her when she applied for citizenship, and the first stage involved getting fingerprinted.
“I went to the local police station, and they fingerprinted me and were like, ‘I don’t think this is going to work,’