Fingerprinting Is NOT Fun

I went to my local UPS store to get my fingerprints for the FBI background check request. Immediately, I grew nervous when I discovered that there would be little guidance and that there is a very small margin for error. I was under the impression that they literally guided your hand. That didn't happen until the very last finger, and only because I'd had to do it over and over again.

Fingerprinting is hard.

Fingerprinting is not fun.

Fingerprinting sucks.

I went through about 3 fingerprinting cards and a pile of white stickers before the UPS worker said it looked like it might work. Might work? Might? What if that might is a might 'bit too much on the "might not" side.


Around this point, with my fingers covered in black ink like I'd just decided it would be a good idea to dig into the wound of an orc, just to see what happened, the finger-scanning option was looking very nice.

It would have cost a little more, but it's faster, less messy and tends to be more accurate. Also, a local company that does the electronic fingerprinting offers a re-scan for free if things go wrong.


I was nearly done, though -- I had all my paperwork with me and was ready to mail everything out. I just had those two pesky fingers that refused to roll and press my fingerprints just right to pass inspection from the UPS worker and his superior. I was going to do it even if I felt like just sitting down on the spot, and crossing my arms as a signal of surrender and frustration (not a good idea, since I still had ink on my hands).

So, I stuck through it, getting a little edgy as I went along, but I pulled through. There will be plenty more stressful moments ahead of me but, I have to say, this one was probably the most frustrating because it seemed so simple until I found myself covered in orc's blood ink.

I got my paperwork mailed out at least. Let's just hope that I didn't mess up, which would mean starting the whole process over again...