Do your fingerprints come more from your mother or your father? Every person has a unique fingerprint pattern. Each print falls into a type like loops or whorls or arches. Genetics (the study of inherited traits) plays a role in which type you get. You collect fingerprints from families by rolling each finger in ink on a plexiglass slab. Then you press each finger onto a card. You label every print by its pattern type and compare across each family. The results may surprise you. In this study, fathers matched their children slightly more often. However, the margin was small. Further testing with more families would help confirm whether one parent truly dominates.