Editing Fingerprint (section)

== In fiction ==

=== Mark Twain ===
[[Mark Twain]]'s memoir ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'' (1883), notable mainly for its account of the author's time on the river, also recounts parts of his later life and includes [[tall tale]]s and stories allegedly told to him. Among them is an involved, melodramatic account of a murder in which the killer is identified by a thumbprint.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/245 |title=The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life On The Mississippi |author=Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) |access-date=November 24, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013070324/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/245 |archive-date=October 13, 2011 }}</ref> Twain's novel ''[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'', published in 1893, includes a courtroom drama that turns on fingerprint identification.

=== Crime fiction ===
The use of fingerprints in crime fiction has, of course, kept pace with its use in real-life detection. Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] wrote a short story about his celebrated sleuth [[Sherlock Holmes]] which features a fingerprint: "[[The Norwood Builder]]" is a 1903 short story set in 1894 and involves the discovery of a bloody fingerprint which helps Holmes to expose the real criminal and free his client.

The British detective writer [[R. Austin Freeman]]'s first Thorndyke novel ''The Red Thumb-Mark'' was published in 1907 and features a bloody fingerprint left on a piece of paper together with a parcel of diamonds inside a safe-box. These become the center of a medico-legal investigation led by [[Dr. Thorndyke]], who defends the accused whose fingerprint matches that on the paper, after the diamonds are stolen.

=== Film and television ===
In the television series ''[[Bonanza]]'' (1959–1973), the Chinese character Hop Sing uses his knowledge of fingerprints to free Little Joe from a murder charge.

The 1997 movie ''[[Men in Black (1997 film)|Men in Black]]'' required Agent J to remove his ten fingerprints by putting his hands on a metal ball, an action deemed necessary by the MIB agency to remove the identity of its agents.

In the 2009 science fiction movie ''[[Cold Souls (film)|Cold Souls]]'', a [[Mule (smuggling)|mule]] who smuggles [[souls]] wears latex fingerprints to frustrate airport security terminals. She can change her identity by simply changing her wig and latex fingerprints.