Probably a forensic scientist. In my forensics class, we learned about how some criminals would either cut off their fingerprints or burn them off with acid, which was a very bad idea because, like the expert in the video said, it actually makes your prints *more* unique, and there's still your palm prints too. Also, your fingerprints will grow back in the same pattern.
Identical twins, despite having the same genetic makeup, have different fingerprints. An anatomy teacher once told me it was due to the way the two embryos move around in the womb and shake up the amino acids in each cell, causing this phenomenon. An oddly specific fact for an oddly specific video
once in class we were talking about identical twins(a term I dislike cause they are not) and someone asked if they had the same fingerprints. The teacher could not answer since he didn't know, I answered that I found it unlikely as you don't even share fingerprints with yourself. Like, just look at your right and left index fingers right now, do they look the same, the answer is no(or at least it should be acording to probability, or you could have Adermatoglyphia, I don't know you)
@@legallypumpkin also known as "immigration delay disease". It's a disorder that causes you not to have fingerprints or toeprints, obviously your prints are identical if they don't exist.
I remember in middle school I was in a woodshop class. The woodshop teacher had often told us a story about how when he was very young his hand got stuck in a sanding machine. Luckily he didn't lose any fingers or fingertips, but it had actually sanded his fingerprints on his left hand off. He told us that when he applied to be the woodshop teacher for that school, the school had called him asking for him to redo his application because there was just a black blob where there was supposed to be his fingerprint for his left thumb and they assumed it was an error.
That can't happen because if you sand off your finger print you will still heal it back. There was this criminal that didn't want people to identify his fingerprint so he cut them all off and he still healed perfectly.
@@epicgamer-ny4fj It doesn't, identical twins have different fingerprints and they have the same DNA. Fingerprints are determined by the conditions of the womb while you are a fetus, not by your DNA.
The mood when you're busy falling down The Spiral, insanely obsessing over your fingerprints, and somebody points out that you could double how much pointless madness you wallow in by revealing to you that you also have toes.
My interpretation is it's about the idea of avoiding self confrontation and aknowleding yourself as an individual being that effects the world as much as it effects you, the speaker wants to disconnect himself from his actions and himself, seeing others as if they have a better grasp of the world and themselves, he wants everything to stay as it is he doesn't want to aknowledge change or pursue it and though overthinking it he realizes the truth but rather than accepting it becomes overwhelmed and refuses to move forward, forever cought in an loop of thought which he can never escape, unable, unwilling, to accept help from others and despite aknowledging the problem unable to escape it on his own
@@forgor4410 Literally 2/3 of the comments were about what they said though? Idek who they are 👁👄👁 You’re one of the two comments talking about them and their fame?!
fun fact: my dad had a friend that was part of a really weird family and they were kinda blue tinted? and so this kid had no fingerprints. dont take my word for it tho i don't remember it perfectly
Man, other people's existential crisis sound so strange and weird. Every person has something they obsess over, and while it can be easy to relate to that feeling, relating to the object of their obsession is much harder. In short, this sounds familiar and completely alien at the same time.
I have a re-occurring nightmare about clipping through the floor and falling, (like if you clipped out of bounds in a video game, not seeing the objects from the outside because it didn't need to be textured) only to look up to find my family scared, wondering where I went. Erased so completely. No sign of a struggle. Just... gone... and forced to watch the grief. I think it's been several months since I had this one, but I'm not willing to call it done for yet. It haunted me for years.
Yeah, I think it may also me metaphorical. Like it could be using this ‘absurd’ idea to show that sometimes the things we obsess about are not really a big deal.
@@frogfox4287 I had a very similar recurring nightmare, or just problem with my imagination where the floor would become paper thin and fragile and would break and fall away. The fact that I wasn't imagining the ground underneath my feet meant that it just didn't exist. A lot of the time it wouldn't fall away right away so I would be running through my house or another person's house I remembered really well, unable to retrace my steps because the floor was gone. Like those things in Mario that fall a few seconds after you touch em. For some reason I would always end up going into the basement and realizing I am totally trapped as I wait for the floor to fall beneath me. If I tried to grab on to something, that would break too. I haven't had it in a good six months but the problem with it is that once I get it in my head I can't get it out, to the point where I'll be trying to visualize something for literally any reason at all and I will start falling with the 2-dimensional floor. In daytime. Cause I tried to use my broken imagination and it glitched.
If you aren't sure about cutting off your fingertips, you can always use acid or heat to burn off your fingerprints instead. This is a mildly painful process, but do not fear- the loss of fingerprints is temporary. Think of it like a demo of fully cutting off your fingertips! Of course, if you don't want to go that far, you could always wear gloves for a few days ;)
@@marshmallowallen5677 not really, and I'd also warn that not having fingerprints is so uncommon that it could actually be equally identifying in any context where it's known you lack them
@@marshmallowallen5677 not exactly, I assumed you wanted to loose them to hinder identification, as that's essentially the only reason one would want to remove their fingerprints. You see not having fingerprints would hinder your grip, so loosing them actually hurts you in a general sense.
As absurd of a topic cutting off your finger tips is, I can definitely relate to the thought process. Something so oddly specific and abstract can easily lead down mental rabbit holes relating back to meaning, purpose and direction in life. I'm not sure the intended purpose or message behind this video, but I can't help thinking that the thought patterns presented are much more important than the desire to cut one's fingers.
@@kyliefickle7063 I do not recommend living without toe nails. One day when I was 9 I had this bright idea to play soccer on asphalt wearing flip-flops. Tore off my smallest toenail clean off in like a second. Of course it hurt at first, but as soon as the pain stopped I immediately thought "oh well, it was just a toenail, who cares if it doesn't grow back? It's not like I miss my bail clippings, how's this going to be any different?it was never useful to me, no one will ever even know it's gone." But I knew. Cut to me a week later. I've spent hours looking at my feet. Unable to think about anything else. I only lost a toenail, but felt like someone just chopped of one of my arm. It didn't really matter but it was still a part of me. And it was gone. Luckly some scrap of something was apparently left stuck in my toe so I was able to grow back like three quarters of my toenail, but every now and then I still find myself thinking about that missing quarter. So in short 0/10, would not recommend.
I’m taking a gap year in college rn and it’s really hard seeing people move on. And I relate a lot to this guy. I also wanted to find the “right path” and be honest with myself. But I got too caught up in “roles.” I don’t regret my decision, but seeing people make progress sometimes makes me feel like I must force it on myself. Leading me to consider making drastic changes that sound good on paper, but in reality I probably wouldn’t be happy with it (like cutting off your fingertips). I had to learn was that although people and their opinions are valuable, as soon as I take their approval as gospel I lose myself. I’m still figuring things out and taking one step at a time but just wanted to share this part of my journey. Thanks for reading this. And thank you Matthias for the great video as always.
Damn im taking a gap year too and i feel you, jumped into a field/degree because i thought they sounded good in the long run and people told me i was good at it but never considered if i could be fulfilled by it the way following what i really want could. You arent alone, I am figuring it out too through the awkward conversations with family and friends on why im not in school right now lol, but I know that all of us taking a break rn can use the time to either come back refreshed and stronger or persue something more personally fulfilling.
I finished college, just an associates but im proud of it, its a full degree... And I dont want to go back. The problem is, I cant just get out of college and then do nothing, I had to get a job. And I have that now, its not what I want to do, its just pushing carts around at walmart, but its a job... I just... Dont think im very good at it. Sure its only been a week but how long until I am good at it? Or at least when am I expected to be good? Two weeks? A month? Is it even worth getting good at this, I dont even want to do it... And if im not good at this simple thing, how can I do anything else? How am I ever going to be able to do anything? That.... Thats my fear right now. I think that was only tangentally related but its been on my mind....
Don't rush it. I wish I had taken some time and went to get my associates from a community college before I went for my BA because I was still lost. I ended up finding a major I loved but I'm not using my degree.
Taking a gap year is not easy You have to be more brave to take a gap year than the one who moved on. I also took a gap year I lost that one year but in that year I found myself now I know what to do in my life and I am happier than ever sometimes you should just have to give yourself a little break. Dont worry everything will be fine.
This type of meaningful content, usually if someone makes things like this they explain the deep correlation it has to someone else, but I really like that he just leaves it at that, you understand but you don’t really know exactly what it means, but things I believe are best conveyed when not made obvious. For that, I love this.
I completely agree, I actually learned about this today at the university. I definitely need to see this video again to grasp everything he tried to convey though. But that might be a good thing. This is so good😄
At the beginning he literally explain fingerprints is identity. But I believe if he didn't make that clear most people wouldn't understand the deep meaning of it on RUclips (myself included)
... I get what you try to say... But I still don't feel like I completely get what this is supposed to be... I feel like I know just too little, even for whaf I am supposed to get from this. So... Is this just about not wanting to have a set identity, partially connected to privacy, but mostly just in general?
@@mikethegoo the fact you're able to figure out that it means "something" means you have enough knowledge to be able to make your own conclusions, that's what everyone's saying and it seems to be the comments that he's liking from what I can tell. The trick is to stop relying on other people to give you the answer for this kind of thing, and be more confident and deciding your own outcome if the outcome is made optional.
I think this is about how following a passion or career goal in life can narrow your perspective, leading you, ironically, to become further estranged from it. When you choose something to be your identity, you tend to introspect far more about it, and without anything to ground you, there is a tendency to come to conclusions that are detached from reality, that would seem silly to people who look at it from the outside. This man has spent so much of his life thinking about his fingerprints, he is unable to see the bigger picture without a layperson's perspective. As someone who is studying to become a game developer, this feels too real to me.
lmaooo don't forget this guy is actually a really technically skilled artist, i remember subscribing to him 4 years ago when he was making more complex stuff, but I love the newer stuff too tho, like that door video was so good. Ride of a channel progression.
Even if the fingertips are gone, the rest of the finger and palm prints can still be used to identify a person. They're not as easy to collect and aren't in as many databases, but they still can be used. Also koalas have fingerprints so similar to humans, it can become difficult to investigate crimes in Australia. The koala can leave fingerprints that match a human's and make it look like they were at the crime scene, even if they were actually on the other side of the continent. And yes, I have a short story rotting in my drafts based around someone falsely accused of murder because of koala fingerprints and a lack of an alibi.
@@jessh4016 There actually are cases where koalas falsely implicated people! It's impossible for fingerprints to completely match, sure, but most of the fingerprints at crime scenes are partial and/or obscured. You're really lucky if you get a whole, unobscured fingerprint so there are times that partials match up perfectly with humans.
Hey, if you want even more of an existential crisis: Even your tongue has a distinctive print that can be used to identify you! And also, in the opposite direction, fingerprints aren’t entirely your identity - it is very possible (and multiple instances have been documented) for 2 or more people completely disconnected from one-another to be born with identical fingerprints.
Actually it goes a step further than this. There isn't actually any evidence that we all have unique fingerprints. A lot of scientists now believe fingerprinting to be a pseudoscience at best
@@RaminousPolacious Yes and very often. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is unlikely to change, so it makes sense for lighting to hit the same place more than once. Saying lighting never hits the same place twice is like saying a river never ends in the same riverbed twice.
This work reminds me of Don Hertzfeldt films. I can't explain how eloquently but the pacing and playful sense of humor on the surface that holds much deeper, if sometimes unclear meaning all wrapped up in the package of a man deciding to cut off his fingertips. This is art
Me going in: "Yeah man go for it they'll grow back " Me coming out: "Erasure of the identifiers of a person, erasure of what a person leaves behind, to become the kind of person who would no longer want to leave anything behind... Don't cut off your fingertips, they're fine. :/"
I think this video perfectly depicts curing a symptom rather than the actual disease. There is a morbid desire to be unchanging, always right, and then there are fingerprints: the manifestation of the impossibility of that unhealthy desire. So, rather than seeking help, why not just cut off your fingertips, and then your toeprints and who knows what else. Until the Disease finally consumed you, or you anderstood the pain you were into, and did something about it at the right time. Seek help people, sometimes doing the right thing is exceptionally hard. But the only way to get out of a loop is changing yourself, with help possibly.
My grandfather lost his fingerprints, he used to be a tailor and worked with lots of wool, the wool ended up scrapping his fingertips away. So I leave a warning: wann keep your finger prints? Avoid wool, or maybe look for wool if you want to lose it.
@@brokenlegs8431 I think it's that it got so covered with micro cuts and scars that discerning any prints would be nigh impossible. Yeah, if they were entirely removed, then it would grow back but with no need and no sign that anything is wrong, nothing will fix itself.
@@brokenlegs8431 as frog said below, it isn’t that the fingerprints were removed, it’s that they were covered by micro scars, abrasions, and other damages. If he were to more thoroughly scar his fingers, like from a burn, after healing his fingerprints might re-emerge. I dunno though, I’m not a doctor.
@@brokenlegs8431 After a bit of google, it seems that it IS possible to remove fingerprints completely, but it is very difficult and requires deep, substantial damage. Most burns , heat or acid, wouldn't typically do enough damage. It is completely possible to temporarily remove fingerprints but without enough damage it will grow back in a month or two. The wool probably did remove the finger prints and continuing to handle the wool kept it worn down, keeping them from growing back. However, as you so succinctly put it: "I am not a finger scientist"
I relate to this completely, and not at all. The anxiety, the unsure nature, the constant contemplation, all of it speaks to me in a voice that seems both familiar, yet strange. You may want to cut off your fingertips, mr cartoon sir, but you left an impression on me. A mark. And I wouldn’t say its a bad one.
This open ended interpretation, while leaving room for self-affirmation, enables a larger group of people to all collectively (for their own reasons) appreciate and agree with this. Very cool.
I got it! I think!! The fingertips are an allegory for the things that make you unique and that matter to you. The toeprints are the things that make you unique but you don't care about. As we become adults, the world places more roles upon us, and we must shed a lot of our uniqueness in order to fit those roles, and the question is, should I just shed all of that? Now that I've recently become an adult with, like, a job and shit, my personality has become something of no use, it's just there, I rarely get to engage with it, it honestly kinda bothers me to have it, so, the useful thing would be to ditch it out, and only fit the roles. The people with beautiful fingertips are those who through their uniqueness and personality shine amongst their roles So, the question that the You character asks is... What about those traits of your personality or your body you've never even thought about? Think about those traits for a second, the mundane but uncommon ones, like, maybe you sleep in really weird positions, or you like to hum a really specific tune while you shower, or you chew your food in a specific motion... your toes... your toes... they have prints... would you shed that too? No, that's stupid, why would you give a shit about those things? But, then, your fingertips,
It's awesome to watch something like this and feel like it was made specifically for me. I wonder if our fingertips are similar. Discovering that cutting them off might not be the right decision is terrifying, especially because at one point it was everything. Hope you're good.
I love how I never know what im getting into when I click on one of your videos. Also very interesting to read how many different interpretations people have 😅
It started as a silly question and soon grew into a metaphor for your own life and the expectations you feel. Wow, and now it has new meaning. This is a wonderful video. :3
Man, this hit home. I'm currently in the middle of a change in perspective and what my role in the world should, or even can be. I've been working in research for years, but as the clock ticks on, I just want to find my way back to art, music, animations, and videos, and I have started posting my attempts at grasping for these goals. I guess my fingertips will be useful for said grasping, so I'll hold back from cutting them off.
Such a sustained look at a profound mental space. I'm surprised and impressed you managed to keep that narrative consistent. I can't remember the last time I've watched such an involved artistic side-eye into feelings surrounding identity and change.
This makes me feel a way I can't describe. I feel acknowledged. I'm at the lowest point in my life, not knowing what I should live for. Not wanting to live, but not wanting to die. I've changed. The expectations from others and the ones I have for myself remain the same, but they don't make sense anymore. My fingertips are the same from who I was then but they've changed. Things aren't the same, they won't be. How do I move forward with the idea of who I am and expectations with that? Should I cut off my fingertips?
I gotta admit, I subscribed SPECIFICALLY for your Meji Restoration history video and for more history videos after that. I didn't realise I wanted videos like this just as much!
I have kinda been in love with this video ever since I first saw it, in the way u can be in love with a thought that serves no purpose to ur immediate life but yet seems to encompass everything anyways. And I come back to it, every time relating this process of thought presented in the video with different aspects of...idk anything. I do always feel a strange connection to my first interpretation though, and maybe because it goes to show how deep a dark thought can run and turn everything into an allegory for itself. (tw suicidal stuff?) The whole concept of being so attached to the IDEA of cutting off your finger prints that you can't imagine just....not, is so similar to my experiences being suicidal. When you are trying to recover, the deep rooted system of thoughts and ideas u have built around "What if I just killed myself?" or "I should/want to kill myself" is hard to just... abandon all of a sudden. it's weird because when you have dealt with it for a long time, your entire life, every small aspect of it, gets tied into that thought of suicide. idk if this is a universal experience between other ppl who struggle with it but I do think some people may relate a little bit, cuz honestly that has been the hardest part of recovery and moving on for me, a version of me and my life that's whole existence isn't about misery. I'm better now, not perfect, but better and I do hope all of you get better too. And I definitely hope you find the strength to stick around long enough to see yourself getting better, cuz it won't be perfect or easy but it would be, for lack of *better* word,,,, better. (TW over) anyways that's just my experience with this piece if media, I've loved reading other people's versions of how they interacted with it/were impacted by it! fun stuff! good video as always :)
So... I kinda accidentally cut the fingerprint of my middle finger off, about half a centimeter deep. It grew back in a couple weeks almost entirely, and now months later I can barely see a line around where I had cut a piece off, but it really looks just as it was before otherwise.
:v I chew on my fingers(kin). One day, I accidentally (purpously) ripped off some of my middle finger's fingerprint. Took some time to heal and it's quite fine now, the skin before was a little hard, and now it's soft. Downsides is just that my middle finger's fingerprint got dislocated. The tiny spiral was suppoused to be in the middle. But now it's a little on the right :( My right hand's pointer finger also used to have its whole fingerprint part ******, but it healed pretty quickly! Didn't even realise that it healed until I looked at it one day
Something about this channel just makes me question my existence y'all- Also Mattias seems so fun to hang out with- especially their beautiful way of thinking.
Wow. As a person who's been struggling with OCD for years this perfectly encapsulates my experience with seemingly absurd and abstract thoughts looping in my head to a point of becoming an obsession. And the way the video portrays how it might seem from a perspective of an outsiders, who don't understand any of it and most of the time just find it pointless and ridiculous hits home even harder. (Incidentally one of my obsessions was also connected with toes, specifically nails. For me my discomfort and anxiety over my nails became so debilitating that I decided to have them permanently removed. I still remember people telling me things like "well, if you gonna remove your nails, and what next? You're gonna cut your feet off too?" Damn, I never expected a random animation on the internet to connect with me on such a deep level. Props to the creator.
A couple things: If you want to remove fingerprints, you can do it with a solid burn, you don't have to deal with the blood that way. Also, apparently, fingerprints aren't entirely unique for each person, though it is unlikely that two people will have the exact same set of twenty
3 weeks ago I went through psychosis and I had these exact same thoughts as you did and it just felt so relatable that me and you had this exact same brain process where we thought things had to be one way and we realized soon after that they can be any way we want them to
you dont have to cut off your finger tips, you can just press them against an electric hob and there should be comparitivaley less blood. and you can probably still use them after for picking stuff up (your phone may not detect them and your grip will not be as strong as you lose surface area), I dont know the specifics so idk if you wanna use oil and fry em or butter or nothing
Been really struggling not to sh lately (haven't even made it 3 weeks yet) this video hits hard in so many ways. Thankyou for your amazing animations/art
Such a fascinating and provoking line of thought. It's an interesting take on identity, reputation, and what is socially expected and accepted by any individual. It has added layers regarding one's own mortality, permanence, mental health/wellbeing, and the desire to be happy regardless of wether or not it is considered taboo or harmful to one's self. There's so many layers wrapped up here in such a short amount of time This twisted and strange animation is a wonderful piece of philosophical art and I truly love it. I hope you continue making more wonderful stuff for years to come no matter what form it takes place
So lemme get the definition of "finger tip" and "finger print" because cutting the pads off your fingers will leave you with a finger print made of scar tissue that will be ever changing as it grows and heals and also still very identifiable. But most people who say finger tip mean only the very farthest bit from the palm and not including the entire nail or even 1/4th of it. Were you suggesting you would remove the entire top of the finger? Or just alter the fingerprint itself. How much dexterity are you willing to lose and how long do you want the recovery to be? Do you intend to cut the tops off your thumbs because they are attached to arteries and they will make you bleed out really fast. We all struggle for meaning because the only meaning is the one we give things even if nobody else agrees. It feels good when others agree though.
The character hates his own prints because to him the prints represent the permanence of his current identity, he happens to dislike his current identity and he believes that if he were to be a nobody he would have the option to build himself anew from scratch. The prints also represent a visual marker to other people, they notify others of who he is and what to expect from him. When confronted with the question about the toe prints he confronts an aspect of his form he's never seen before, he discovers that his toes; much like the finger tips he agonizes so much over also have prints. Yet he also realizes that his toeprints are also a set of visual markers of who he is, and thus it wouldn't be too different if they were cut off instead. The fact that he didn't agonize over his toes till he realized they were there reinforces the irony of the video and prompts him to explore why he can't stop thinking about cutting his fingerprints off. In deep thought he realizes that he hates his fingerprints because of the way he was shaped by others for having them. People's expectations of him would restrict how much he's able to shape himself. He blames the fingertips because they are the visual indicator that signals to others what to expect of him. But while deep in thought he realizes also he's no stranger to change and that his fingerprints tell a story much grander than just his own life, they change just as much as he does because as he changes he also redefines what they mean. Yet the character isn't complete in his convection and is torn between settling by changing his own views and expectations of himself, or changing himself to be more fitting of the expectations of other. At every plateau the character has to question to himself if a certain aspect of himself aligns with societal expectations or if he should forge his own expectations for what he should be, he also combats the allure of having no visual markers, being an invisible person who nobody expects anything from, thusly he thinks of cutting his fingerprints off again. 10/10 video, felt this way many times.
There is no painless way to get rid of your fingerprints, but if for some reason you're still pondering about this, you can burn your fingerprints off, it's as painful as cutting them off, but you'll still have your fingertips
I don't really know if this was intentional but I, as a trans person, really felt this video in relation to my struggles with gender dysphoria. Good video, you really hit the nail on the head for me
That never crossed my mind that “fingerprints” could really mean something else and could relate to the trans experience or body dysmorphia in general. I can totally see it now.
Gives me vibes of when you get stuck in a disturbing thought loop on acid and you just want to stop thinking about it, but the harder you try not to think about it the more your mind gets entangled in it. Great vid.
Was I ready for this existentialism? No. Did I understand it? Not really. But I'll be damn well lying if I say that I don't relate to this man. As a twin my fingerprints is one of the few naturally defining factors between me and my sister. I don't know if I want to be different than her or the same, but either way I'm still me and she's still her. Cutting off my fingertips won't change that, it'll only make it easier to pin crimes on her (something I don't want to do). So idk, I don't see any pros or cons other than defining myself as an individual
Life is like a mountain range. We go up and we go down ever moving. At the top, things seem so bright and freeing. If you focus hard enough you can even make out other mountain tops in the future that you'll reach. It's a feeling of confidence and contentment unlike any other. We get excited and motivated looking outward, and see just in front of us a beautiful, fulfilling mountain top worth climbing to be part of. And so with lofty plans and unwavering ambition by the exorbitant amount we set forth down towards the next mountain. Halfway down you feel good. You remember that view you saw, and despite it being a while ago you know it will be worth it and keep going. You are now at the bottom and concerningly a thought pops on your head. "*what if this is the wrong mountain?..*" Still, you've been at the bottom before right? Just make it to the top and see for yourself. You got this... right? You had before. You are now half way up the next mountain, your pace has slowed and you find yourself stuck and anxious. Each step is a reminder of how long ago you being at the top has been. Things that felt so good and clear feel like a distant memory. *"Will you ever see the mountain top again?"* *"Are you heading in the right direction, or was it all a mirage?"* *"Can you be happy again?"* And in that moment when all is lost, remember one thing. Whether you are climbing or falling, ascending or descending. Focus on what you can control, give yourself some slack and more importantly enjoy the ride. Appreciate the journey and more importantly the challenge. Don't shy away from it. Between every mountain climbed will always be doubt, and you didn't let it fool you before! And If you do see the mountains from up top, high again amongst the mountains, look back on all the other ones you've conquered and feel proud. Then look at all the mountains you had once fallen from and appreciate how far you've come. Give a quick thanks to all that you've passed along the way, and finally look ahead. Outward amongst the clouds floating around the mountains, representing all the dreams just with in grasp, and with an appreciated sigh descend for that next summit. And in case after all that, you want to chop your fingertips off or stop climbing the mountain, know you aren't alone. And that this journey called being human is a humbling and awkward one. Reach out to those around you, and be true to yourself. And always remember one more thing: Things that look ugly now or bring us pain in the short term, often become the most beautiful and end up the most rewarding long after. Even something as small and insignificant as a fingerprint. >:0
I enjoy the metaphor of the fingertips being the identity being supposed at the start, however, when brought back up later, it is almost like we forgot it entirely and the idea of fingerprints literally shifting became so foreign of an idea. This is about being lost in understanding who you are, as who you are shifts based on what you are exposed to. It becomes even harder because who you are will change how you see who you are, and you have to wonder who you can trust anymore. Others? Yourself? The simplest answer is that maybe no one knows who you are. Perhaps no one will know, and this is normal. But it's so unsatisfying of an answer. How do we figure out how normal this actually is? Well, who we are will shift how we look at others, too. We could go our entire lives, however long, being totally obsessed with some random ideal as being true. But then it turns out it isn't true, based on greater evidence. Who we are will change how we react to this. Do we accept the change? Do we deny it anyways? Who or what holds the most honor of the situation? Or does no one or.. nothing hold any honor? Any meaning... I am a firm believer in ontological, purely scientific and wholly logical derivations of absolutely everything. I am scared by all of this, and I want to know what the true meanings held by reality actually are. All I can say is that, the more you discover, the more it hurts. “The truth sears the eyes witnessing it.” This is a quote by me from months ago. I even sent this to my fiancée as a final message when we had issues. I feel very alone in where I am, now. Everything I do or say has to be totally backed up with total, logical explanation or argumentation. If the logic is disbelieved, I see the cracks in others. But it also shines a crack in myself. I understand now that many people don't think about this, care, or pay mind to it, because they want a simpler existence. Simplicity is less painful. But in this, they become ignorant to the truth. The fact that, sometimes, they are actually hurting themselves without knowing by supporting complexity they thought was simple. Simplicity as a conclusion will take complication, first, to create. But when they only look at the surface, they believe I am harmful. I look deeper and believe they are harmful. If we look the deepest, it seems no one is intentionally harmful. Existence forces the conclusion that people will be. Things will be. Is this the iceberg of existence itself? I suppose. The truth sears the eyes witnessing it. I have witnessed so much that I consider myself a sacrifice now. My soul is placed up for handling the complexities others mistakenly create to try and simplify things, so I may actually simplify them and restore some peace, even if I am hated for it. No matter what end you are on, you will always suffer. All we can do is try to minimize it. So what is my identity? I believe it is subjective. I am what I am witnessed as, to any given person, thing, or situation. Identity is relative. But what of permanent or distinctive identity? Well, really, I am nothing. It is where I come from, where I go, and only during this middle part is there the idea that I am actually something. Really, if there is something that I am, it is just that I am part of everything. Indistinguishable from it. Non-distinct. But if I had not happened, it would be like nothing had changed at all. I believe, now, the true question is that I am matter, but do I matter? What would happen at a loss of balance? Maybe you, the reader, just believe what I am saying is stupid. However, if you do, then you have only proven me correct. However, you would also be correct. I would be stupid. You don't need to believe or see it. Me being here was the same as me not being here at all.
I feel like this feeling is wanting to escape something but never knowing exactly how to get past it. Usually a sort of phrase, idea, or association to that feeling is normalized into something else. Like associating the colour yellow to happiness and liking the colour for its representation you personally think it is. Sometimes it's a phrase like "I want to die" or "I'm bored" but you're not actually meaning those words but the feeling you associated to those words after you used it time and time again to explain that feeling. Eventually the words lose the meaning you thought it was but now it's your only escape and conclusion to your feeling in a bid to make sense of it. And maybe when that coping makes less and less sense as we grow the more we try to fit it back into its place so that the phrase, idea and associated term will still have meaning and there's still hope to feel in control just like how you used to feel back then. And maybe there is no hope to believe in. Maybe that's just living. And that's pretty terrifying.
Skin always comes back. And idk if this is true but I heard that the very tip of your fingers come back (like you know the rings on your fingers? Roughly on the last one)
If you cut off your fingertips, the skin will regrow as scars, and then it will feel weird when you touch things with your fingers. It may even have decreased grabbing ability.
I commented this seperately, but kinda felt like replying here too because why not. After cutting about a half a centimeter deep piece off of my fingertip, it grew back to look almost exactly as it was. Took a month or two to completely get rid of the "raw" look, but now there's only a hairline-fracture -looking line on the tip if you look very closely. Otherwise it's perfectly healthy.
Can affect the natural lubrication functionality of the skin also. This is one component of being able to easily grasp things. Not fun in larger areas of skin.
I know that it has nothing to do with it, but a transgender person, these feels strangely resonant with wanting to have a mastectomy for all the expectations that comes with having breasts, but that having no breasts comes with an entirely new set of expectations. This really is a story about feeling boxed in by things you can’t control, or at least I assume. And trying to find anyway to express genuinely, only to find yourself back at the start.
There was a mobster that soaked his tips in lye or something to dissolve off his fingerprints so he couldn't be tracked. The problem is is that fingerprints grow back exactly like they were. You'd basically have to cut so deep it never forms a tip again, and by that point the wound's print is even more noticably unique than the print.
*Third world problems:* "We need to find more water, our only source so far is making the people of the village sick, some of our elders have died already." *First world problems:*
as a person who accidently removed their fingerprint on one finger with a pair of scissors (only cut skin), they grow back but wrong, they won't match other hand. Any damage will change how they form. They only way you can manage to remove them fully is by acid, more painful and you have numb fingertips after.
This video makes me feel emotions I never thought I had. I can relate myself so well with this guttural feeling and yet have not a single clue as to what you're trying to point out. At least I learned, because the first time I watched this video nothing really struck me as a thought other than the strange surreal feeling I got when watching it, and that the slight frantic idea bouncing was somewhat relatable. It made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't understand, not even the message it tried to pull from it's short "story". But now? It's clear as to what it meant. Still, scarily relatable, but even then I feel a bit more at peace knowing I'm not the only one out there who feels this way or can peer so easily into the perspective of anyone in a similar situation. Not only that, but I have been slowly improving and the thought of something like this does not seem so scary anymore. I know this is rather- late but, thank you. So much.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Sorry for being so careless with my question, thanks for putting me in my place!
You're an expert in cutting fingertips!?!
woah a funny guy commented here?
Don't be so careless the next time, Joel
This comment is gonna get big
you own no joels, your life is a lie
I like how theres an expert in the field of cutting your finger prints off.
Probably a forensic scientist. In my forensics class, we learned about how some criminals would either cut off their fingerprints or burn them off with acid, which was a very bad idea because, like the expert in the video said, it actually makes your prints *more* unique, and there's still your palm prints too. Also, your fingerprints will grow back in the same pattern.
@@boxofspoons8867 Dillon?
@@boxofspoons8867 so you can burn them before doing crimes and they will grow again, good to now.
@@boxofspoons8867 now I know how to hide the bodies
A little dip in some sulfuric acid will take care of that
Identical twins, despite having the same genetic makeup, have different fingerprints. An anatomy teacher once told me it was due to the way the two embryos move around in the womb and shake up the amino acids in each cell, causing this phenomenon. An oddly specific fact for an oddly specific video
Very interesting!
Oh hey, I'm an identical twin. Yup, we do have different fingerprints. The more you know!
once in class we were talking about identical twins(a term I dislike cause they are not) and someone asked if they had the same fingerprints. The teacher could not answer since he didn't know, I answered that I found it unlikely as you don't even share fingerprints with yourself. Like, just look at your right and left index fingers right now, do they look the same, the answer is no(or at least it should be acording to probability, or you could have Adermatoglyphia, I don't know you)
@@OffSatan adermatoglyphia?
@@legallypumpkin also known as "immigration delay disease". It's a disorder that causes you not to have fingerprints or toeprints, obviously your prints are identical if they don't exist.
I remember in middle school I was in a woodshop class. The woodshop teacher had often told us a story about how when he was very young his hand got stuck in a sanding machine. Luckily he didn't lose any fingers or fingertips, but it had actually sanded his fingerprints on his left hand off. He told us that when he applied to be the woodshop teacher for that school, the school had called him asking for him to redo his application because there was just a black blob where there was supposed to be his fingerprint for his left thumb and they assumed it was an error.
That can't happen because if you sand off your finger print you will still heal it back. There was this criminal that didn't want people to identify his fingerprint so he cut them all off and he still healed perfectly.
Your fingerprints will always grow back the same
@@billysbigworld6166 which is super crazy when you think about it.
Like, like the DNA in your body speicfcly has genes for recreating finger prints
@@epicgamer-ny4fj I know its so weird but crazy lol
@@epicgamer-ny4fj It doesn't, identical twins have different fingerprints and they have the same DNA. Fingerprints are determined by the conditions of the womb while you are a fetus, not by your DNA.
The mood when you're busy falling down The Spiral, insanely obsessing over your fingerprints, and somebody points out that you could double how much pointless madness you wallow in by revealing to you that you also have toes.
I can feel the allegory, but I don't really know what it is.
I suspect it involves discarding a part of who you are to satisfy others, hence the talk about roles in the latter half of the piece.
@@deon6045 Or it's just a red herring.
My interpretation is it's about the idea of avoiding self confrontation and aknowleding yourself as an individual being that effects the world as much as it effects you, the speaker wants to disconnect himself from his actions and himself, seeing others as if they have a better grasp of the world and themselves, he wants everything to stay as it is he doesn't want to aknowledge change or pursue it and though overthinking it he realizes the truth but rather than accepting it becomes overwhelmed and refuses to move forward, forever cought in an loop of thought which he can never escape, unable, unwilling, to accept help from others and despite aknowledging the problem unable to escape it on his own
I'm not 100% certain so take it with a grain of salt, but I think this video represents a guy obsessed about fingerprints
I think he made it vague so it's up to the people's interpretations to help who it needs to, not just himself
i saw a video once about this family that dodnt have finger prints! it was very cool! (please do not cut ur finger tips off i think it will hurt)
Where did y see that? I find it hard to believe there's even 1 chance a human (with hands) is born without fingerprints just because yes
@@shely_D7vil There is, another comment mentioned it. Bodies be weird
I keep forgetting that you're not verified. Must suck being famous, since all the replies are about you and not the actual comment you made.
@@forgor4410 Literally 2/3 of the comments were about what they said though? Idek who they are 👁👄👁
You’re one of the two comments talking about them and their fame?!
fun fact: my dad had a friend that was part of a really weird family and they were kinda blue tinted? and so this kid had no fingerprints. dont take my word for it tho i don't remember it perfectly
Man, other people's existential crisis sound so strange and weird. Every person has something they obsess over, and while it can be easy to relate to that feeling, relating to the object of their obsession is much harder.
In short, this sounds familiar and completely alien at the same time.
I have a re-occurring nightmare about clipping through the floor and falling, (like if you clipped out of bounds in a video game, not seeing the objects from the outside because it didn't need to be textured) only to look up to find my family scared, wondering where I went. Erased so completely. No sign of a struggle. Just... gone... and forced to watch the grief.
I think it's been several months since I had this one, but I'm not willing to call it done for yet. It haunted me for years.
@@frogfox4287 backrooms moment
@@marselo1316 I hadn't heard of that until after I was already having the nightmare, so it's unrelated but I can see why you would say that.
Yeah, I think it may also me metaphorical. Like it could be using this ‘absurd’ idea to show that sometimes the things we obsess about are not really a big deal.
@@frogfox4287 I had a very similar recurring nightmare, or just problem with my imagination where the floor would become paper thin and fragile and would break and fall away. The fact that I wasn't imagining the ground underneath my feet meant that it just didn't exist. A lot of the time it wouldn't fall away right away so I would be running through my house or another person's house I remembered really well, unable to retrace my steps because the floor was gone. Like those things in Mario that fall a few seconds after you touch em. For some reason I would always end up going into the basement and realizing I am totally trapped as I wait for the floor to fall beneath me. If I tried to grab on to something, that would break too. I haven't had it in a good six months but the problem with it is that once I get it in my head I can't get it out, to the point where I'll be trying to visualize something for literally any reason at all and I will start falling with the 2-dimensional floor. In daytime. Cause I tried to use my broken imagination and it glitched.
This video summarizes the thought of: Therapy is pricey but, Making art is free
If you aren't sure about cutting off your fingertips, you can always use acid or heat to burn off your fingerprints instead. This is a mildly painful process, but do not fear- the loss of fingerprints is temporary. Think of it like a demo of fully cutting off your fingertips!
Of course, if you don't want to go that far, you could always wear gloves for a few days ;)
Is there away to permanently get rid of fingertips without damaging the fingers as a whole
@@marshmallowallen5677 not really, and I'd also warn that not having fingerprints is so uncommon that it could actually be equally identifying in any context where it's known you lack them
@@xxportalxx. did you immediately assume that I intend to commit crimes
@@marshmallowallen5677 not exactly, I assumed you wanted to loose them to hinder identification, as that's essentially the only reason one would want to remove their fingerprints. You see not having fingerprints would hinder your grip, so loosing them actually hurts you in a general sense.
like puberty blockers.
As absurd of a topic cutting off your finger tips is, I can definitely relate to the thought process. Something so oddly specific and abstract can easily lead down mental rabbit holes relating back to meaning, purpose and direction in life. I'm not sure the intended purpose or message behind this video, but I can't help thinking that the thought patterns presented are much more important than the desire to cut one's fingers.
Often I feel the urge to live life without toenails specifically.
@@kyliefickle7063 I do not recommend living without toe nails. One day when I was 9 I had this bright idea to play soccer on asphalt wearing flip-flops.
Tore off my smallest toenail clean off in like a second.
Of course it hurt at first, but as soon as the pain stopped I immediately thought "oh well, it was just a toenail, who cares if it doesn't grow back? It's not like I miss my bail clippings, how's this going to be any different?it was never useful to me, no one will ever even know it's gone."
But I knew.
Cut to me a week later. I've spent hours looking at my feet. Unable to think about anything else. I only lost a toenail, but felt like someone just chopped of one of my arm. It didn't really matter but it was still a part of me. And it was gone.
Luckly some scrap of something was apparently left stuck in my toe so I was able to grow back like three quarters of my toenail, but every now and then I still find myself thinking about that missing quarter.
So in short 0/10, would not recommend.
This sounds like a type of OCD
Its like when you kill and eat someone and then you start think everyone around you knows and care about it but they dont.
@@marlonyo Nice attempt at being edgy on the internet, but we've seen and heard worse stories-- ones that are true.
I’m taking a gap year in college rn and it’s really hard seeing people move on. And I relate a lot to this guy. I also wanted to find the “right path” and be honest with myself. But I got too caught up in “roles.”
I don’t regret my decision, but seeing people make progress sometimes makes me feel like I must force it on myself. Leading me to consider making drastic changes that sound good on paper, but in reality I probably wouldn’t be happy with it (like cutting off your fingertips).
I had to learn was that although people and their opinions are valuable, as soon as I take their approval as gospel I lose myself. I’m still figuring things out and taking one step at a time but just wanted to share this part of my journey.
Thanks for reading this. And thank you Matthias for the great video as always.
Damn im taking a gap year too and i feel you, jumped into a field/degree because i thought they sounded good in the long run and people told me i was good at it but never considered if i could be fulfilled by it the way following what i really want could. You arent alone, I am figuring it out too through the awkward conversations with family and friends on why im not in school right now lol, but I know that all of us taking a break rn can use the time to either come back refreshed and stronger or persue something more personally fulfilling.
I finished college, just an associates but im proud of it, its a full degree... And I dont want to go back.
The problem is, I cant just get out of college and then do nothing, I had to get a job. And I have that now, its not what I want to do, its just pushing carts around at walmart, but its a job... I just... Dont think im very good at it. Sure its only been a week but how long until I am good at it? Or at least when am I expected to be good? Two weeks? A month? Is it even worth getting good at this, I dont even want to do it... And if im not good at this simple thing, how can I do anything else? How am I ever going to be able to do anything? That.... Thats my fear right now.
I think that was only tangentally related but its been on my mind....
Don't rush it. I wish I had taken some time and went to get my associates from a community college before I went for my BA because I was still lost. I ended up finding a major I loved but I'm not using my degree.
I getcha.
Taking a gap year is not easy You have to be more brave to take a gap year than the one who moved on.
I also took a gap year I lost that one year but in that year I found myself now I know what to do in my life and I am happier than ever sometimes you should just have to give yourself a little break. Dont worry everything will be fine.
This type of meaningful content, usually if someone makes things like this they explain the deep correlation it has to someone else, but I really like that he just leaves it at that, you understand but you don’t really know exactly what it means, but things I believe are best conveyed when not made obvious. For that, I love this.
I completely agree, I actually learned about this today at the university. I definitely need to see this video again to grasp everything he tried to convey though. But that might be a good thing. This is so good😄
At the beginning he literally explain fingerprints is identity. But I believe if he didn't make that clear most people wouldn't understand the deep meaning of it on RUclips (myself included)
Rabuzens recent video “I hope this video doesn’t suck” kinda goes with this video, or at least my interpretation of it
... I get what you try to say... But I still don't feel like I completely get what this is supposed to be... I feel like I know just too little, even for whaf I am supposed to get from this.
So... Is this just about not wanting to have a set identity, partially connected to privacy, but mostly just in general?
@@mikethegoo the fact you're able to figure out that it means "something" means you have enough knowledge to be able to make your own conclusions, that's what everyone's saying and it seems to be the comments that he's liking from what I can tell.
The trick is to stop relying on other people to give you the answer for this kind of thing, and be more confident and deciding your own outcome if the outcome is made optional.
I have never been so moved and inspired while not understanding the message whatsoever.
I think this is about how following a passion or career goal in life can narrow your perspective, leading you, ironically, to become further estranged from it. When you choose something to be your identity, you tend to introspect far more about it, and without anything to ground you, there is a tendency to come to conclusions that are detached from reality, that would seem silly to people who look at it from the outside.
This man has spent so much of his life thinking about his fingerprints, he is unable to see the bigger picture without a layperson's perspective. As someone who is studying to become a game developer, this feels too real to me.
Eyyy you’re not drawing stick figures anymore, love to see the progress!
lmaooo don't forget this guy is actually a really technically skilled artist, i remember subscribing to him 4 years ago when he was making more complex stuff, but I love the newer stuff too tho, like that door video was so good. Ride of a channel progression.
Just curious, since this video is about fingertips how would you draw a stickman with fingers lol
@@AdskyLR with stick fingers of course
This is a nice backstory for an antagonist; some dude who achieved Revelation and now wants to cut everyone's fingertips.
Yes, very cool
Isn't that what happened with John Lennon?
New super villain, someone copyright this
Sounds like something out of one of Junji Ito’s stories
Thats actually a character from buddhism angulimala that kills people and collects their finger as a necklace
Even if the fingertips are gone, the rest of the finger and palm prints can still be used to identify a person. They're not as easy to collect and aren't in as many databases, but they still can be used.
Also koalas have fingerprints so similar to humans, it can become difficult to investigate crimes in Australia. The koala can leave fingerprints that match a human's and make it look like they were at the crime scene, even if they were actually on the other side of the continent.
And yes, I have a short story rotting in my drafts based around someone falsely accused of murder because of koala fingerprints and a lack of an alibi.
My suspension is that they hired the koala to do the crime.
I want to read that
Fingerprints grow back, basically exactly the same as they were before you removed them.
@@jessh4016 There actually are cases where koalas falsely implicated people! It's impossible for fingerprints to completely match, sure, but most of the fingerprints at crime scenes are partial and/or obscured. You're really lucky if you get a whole, unobscured fingerprint so there are times that partials match up perfectly with humans.
@@kingoreo7050 The power move then is to just cut off your fingers lmao.
Hey, if you want even more of an existential crisis:
Even your tongue has a distinctive print that can be used to identify you!
And also, in the opposite direction, fingerprints aren’t entirely your identity - it is very possible (and multiple instances have been documented) for 2 or more people completely disconnected from one-another to be born with identical fingerprints.
So a lightening do hit the same spot two times 🤯
Actually it goes a step further than this. There isn't actually any evidence that we all have unique fingerprints. A lot of scientists now believe fingerprinting to be a pseudoscience at best
Well it is at least better than nothing
@@RaminousPolacious Yes and very often. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is unlikely to change, so it makes sense for lighting to hit the same place more than once. Saying lighting never hits the same place twice is like saying a river never ends in the same riverbed twice.
I should cut off my tongue
This is a monologue worthy of being performed on the stage. No joke.
I like your finger prints. Keep uploading them.
🧐
I eat finger prints for breakfast
This work reminds me of Don Hertzfeldt films. I can't explain how eloquently but the pacing and playful sense of humor on the surface that holds much deeper, if sometimes unclear meaning all wrapped up in the package of a man deciding to cut off his fingertips. This is art
huge agree- this video reminded me of It’s Such a Beautiful Day. nice to see another person in the comments bring up Hertzfeldt!
Me going in: "Yeah man go for it they'll grow back "
Me coming out: "Erasure of the identifiers of a person, erasure of what a person leaves behind, to become the kind of person who would no longer want to leave anything behind... Don't cut off your fingertips, they're fine. :/"
Fingertips only grow back if you are a very small child.
Yes but i know, I know that if I did, I would be so much happier than I am right now. I love it and I hate it. I am stuck.
I think this video perfectly depicts curing a symptom rather than the actual disease. There is a morbid desire to be unchanging, always right, and then there are fingerprints: the manifestation of the impossibility of that unhealthy desire. So, rather than seeking help, why not just cut off your fingertips, and then your toeprints and who knows what else. Until the Disease finally consumed you, or you anderstood the pain you were into, and did something about it at the right time. Seek help people, sometimes doing the right thing is exceptionally hard. But the only way to get out of a loop is changing yourself, with help possibly.
This entire video is like the thoughts we have in a split second.
My grandfather lost his fingerprints, he used to be a tailor and worked with lots of wool, the wool ended up scrapping his fingertips away.
So I leave a warning: wann keep your finger prints? Avoid wool, or maybe look for wool if you want to lose it.
the fingerprint texture goes deep enough the point where he would literally have to skin his finger tips to permanently remove them
@@brokenlegs8431 I think it's that it got so covered with micro cuts and scars that discerning any prints would be nigh impossible. Yeah, if they were entirely removed, then it would grow back but with no need and no sign that anything is wrong, nothing will fix itself.
@@brokenlegs8431 as frog said below, it isn’t that the fingerprints were removed, it’s that they were covered by micro scars, abrasions, and other damages. If he were to more thoroughly scar his fingers, like from a burn, after healing his fingerprints might re-emerge. I dunno though, I’m not a doctor.
@@frogfox4287 I am not a finger scientist so I can not confirm any of that but in retrospect you're probably right
@@brokenlegs8431 After a bit of google, it seems that it IS possible to remove fingerprints completely, but it is very difficult and requires deep, substantial damage. Most burns , heat or acid, wouldn't typically do enough damage. It is completely possible to temporarily remove fingerprints but without enough damage it will grow back in a month or two. The wool probably did remove the finger prints and continuing to handle the wool kept it worn down, keeping them from growing back.
However, as you so succinctly put it: "I am not a finger scientist"
Toe prints.
*INSIGHT GAINED*
I relate to this completely, and not at all. The anxiety, the unsure nature, the constant contemplation, all of it speaks to me in a voice that seems both familiar, yet strange.
You may want to cut off your fingertips, mr cartoon sir, but you left an impression on me. A mark. And I wouldn’t say its a bad one.
This open ended interpretation, while leaving room for self-affirmation, enables a larger group of people to all collectively (for their own reasons) appreciate and agree with this.
Very cool.
I got it! I think!!
The fingertips are an allegory for the things that make you unique and that matter to you. The toeprints are the things that make you unique but you don't care about.
As we become adults, the world places more roles upon us, and we must shed a lot of our uniqueness in order to fit those roles, and the question is, should I just shed all of that? Now that I've recently become an adult with, like, a job and shit, my personality has become something of no use, it's just there, I rarely get to engage with it, it honestly kinda bothers me to have it, so, the useful thing would be to ditch it out, and only fit the roles.
The people with beautiful fingertips are those who through their uniqueness and personality shine amongst their roles
So, the question that the You character asks is...
What about those traits of your personality or your body you've never even thought about? Think about those traits for a second, the mundane but uncommon ones, like, maybe you sleep in really weird positions, or you like to hum a really specific tune while you shower, or you chew your food in a specific motion... your toes... your toes... they have prints...
would you shed that too?
No, that's stupid, why would you give a shit about those things?
But, then,
your fingertips,
This was an emotional rollercoaster that left me wondering if I should laugh or cry.
It's awesome to watch something like this and feel like it was made specifically for me. I wonder if our fingertips are similar. Discovering that cutting them off might not be the right decision is terrifying, especially because at one point it was everything. Hope you're good.
I love how I never know what im getting into when I click on one of your videos.
Also very interesting to read how many different interpretations people have 😅
This type of surreal and thoughtful content is what I have been needing to fill the void and so I have subscribed.
This feels like a video essay of an existential crisis
So I see you've gotten a hold of whatever drugs Exurb1a is taking.
Omg yeeess xD
Weed
@@georgiarushanov2210 this sounds more like shrooms to me
Heavy: "Fingertips... Fingerrrtipsssssssss"
i was thinking the same
They Might Be Giants!
It started as a silly question and soon grew into a metaphor for your own life and the expectations you feel. Wow, and now it has new meaning. This is a wonderful video. :3
Man, this hit home. I'm currently in the middle of a change in perspective and what my role in the world should, or even can be. I've been working in research for years, but as the clock ticks on, I just want to find my way back to art, music, animations, and videos, and I have started posting my attempts at grasping for these goals. I guess my fingertips will be useful for said grasping, so I'll hold back from cutting them off.
Such a sustained look at a profound mental space. I'm surprised and impressed you managed to keep that narrative consistent. I can't remember the last time I've watched such an involved artistic side-eye into feelings surrounding identity and change.
I don’t even remember subscribing to you but I’m so glad I did
X2
probably the monkey video, most of us got here because of the monkey video
SAME I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE
Same here!!!
Same
This makes me feel a way I can't describe. I feel acknowledged. I'm at the lowest point in my life, not knowing what I should live for. Not wanting to live, but not wanting to die. I've changed. The expectations from others and the ones I have for myself remain the same, but they don't make sense anymore. My fingertips are the same from who I was then but they've changed. Things aren't the same, they won't be. How do I move forward with the idea of who I am and expectations with that? Should I cut off my fingertips?
I gotta admit, I subscribed SPECIFICALLY for your Meji Restoration history video and for more history videos after that.
I didn't realise I wanted videos like this just as much!
Perfectionism.. Hell of a drug.
I have kinda been in love with this video ever since I first saw it, in the way u can be in love with a thought that serves no purpose to ur immediate life but yet seems to encompass everything anyways. And I come back to it, every time relating this process of thought presented in the video with different aspects of...idk anything. I do always feel a strange connection to my first interpretation though, and maybe because it goes to show how deep a dark thought can run and turn everything into an allegory for itself.
(tw suicidal stuff?) The whole concept of being so attached to the IDEA of cutting off your finger prints that you can't imagine just....not, is so similar to my experiences being suicidal. When you are trying to recover, the deep rooted system of thoughts and ideas u have built around "What if I just killed myself?" or "I should/want to kill myself" is hard to just... abandon all of a sudden. it's weird because when you have dealt with it for a long time, your entire life, every small aspect of it, gets tied into that thought of suicide. idk if this is a universal experience between other ppl who struggle with it but I do think some people may relate a little bit, cuz honestly that has been the hardest part of recovery and moving on for me, a version of me and my life that's whole existence isn't about misery. I'm better now, not perfect, but better and I do hope all of you get better too. And I definitely hope you find the strength to stick around long enough to see yourself getting better, cuz it won't be perfect or easy but it would be, for lack of *better* word,,,, better.
(TW over)
anyways that's just my experience with this piece if media, I've loved reading other people's versions of how they interacted with it/were impacted by it! fun stuff! good video as always :)
So... I kinda accidentally cut the fingerprint of my middle finger off, about half a centimeter deep. It grew back in a couple weeks almost entirely, and now months later I can barely see a line around where I had cut a piece off, but it really looks just as it was before otherwise.
:v
I chew on my fingers(kin). One day, I accidentally (purpously) ripped off some of my middle finger's fingerprint.
Took some time to heal and it's quite fine now, the skin before was a little hard, and now it's soft. Downsides is just that my middle finger's fingerprint got dislocated. The tiny spiral was suppoused to be in the middle. But now it's a little on the right :(
My right hand's pointer finger also used to have its whole fingerprint part ******, but it healed pretty quickly! Didn't even realise that it healed until I looked at it one day
I don't have to do drugs because Mattias has done them all for me.
I mean depends on whether or not you want to commit various crimes.
Your videos feel like the ultimate form of modern art: philosophy represented by absurd subjects YOU ARE AWSOME!
This feels like a fever dream
Something about this channel just makes me question my existence y'all-
Also Mattias seems so fun to hang out with- especially their beautiful way of thinking.
This suddenly shifted from a funny obsessive rant about something I've thought about to an allegory about suicide and depression for me.
Mattis is the only person that can make a 4 minute video feel like 20 and make we watch through to the end
Wow. As a person who's been struggling with OCD for years this perfectly encapsulates my experience with seemingly absurd and abstract thoughts looping in my head to a point of becoming an obsession. And the way the video portrays how it might seem from a perspective of an outsiders, who don't understand any of it and most of the time just find it pointless and ridiculous hits home even harder.
(Incidentally one of my obsessions was also connected with toes, specifically nails. For me my discomfort and anxiety over my nails became so debilitating that I decided to have them permanently removed. I still remember people telling me things like "well, if you gonna remove your nails, and what next? You're gonna cut your feet off too?"
Damn, I never expected a random animation on the internet to connect with me on such a deep level. Props to the creator.
A couple things: If you want to remove fingerprints, you can do it with a solid burn, you don't have to deal with the blood that way. Also, apparently, fingerprints aren't entirely unique for each person, though it is unlikely that two people will have the exact same set of twenty
I love that half the comments are understanding the meaning of the video and the other half are explaining fingertips in the literal sense
3 weeks ago I went through psychosis and I had these exact same thoughts as you did and it just felt so relatable that me and you had this exact same brain process where we thought things had to be one way and we realized soon after that they can be any way we want them to
you dont have to cut off your finger tips, you can just press them against an electric hob and there should be comparitivaley less blood. and you can probably still use them after for picking stuff up (your phone may not detect them and your grip will not be as strong as you lose surface area), I dont know the specifics so idk if you wanna use oil and fry em or butter or nothing
Pan fried fingertips work beautifully in a soup, almost like a bacon-crouton hybrid.
Still one of my favorite videos on the internet. And off the internet too!
Been really struggling not to sh lately (haven't even made it 3 weeks yet) this video hits hard in so many ways. Thankyou for your amazing animations/art
Such a fascinating and provoking line of thought. It's an interesting take on identity, reputation, and what is socially expected and accepted by any individual. It has added layers regarding one's own mortality, permanence, mental health/wellbeing, and the desire to be happy regardless of wether or not it is considered taboo or harmful to one's self. There's so many layers wrapped up here in such a short amount of time
This twisted and strange animation is a wonderful piece of philosophical art and I truly love it. I hope you continue making more wonderful stuff for years to come no matter what form it takes place
So lemme get the definition of "finger tip" and "finger print" because cutting the pads off your fingers will leave you with a finger print made of scar tissue that will be ever changing as it grows and heals and also still very identifiable. But most people who say finger tip mean only the very farthest bit from the palm and not including the entire nail or even 1/4th of it. Were you suggesting you would remove the entire top of the finger? Or just alter the fingerprint itself. How much dexterity are you willing to lose and how long do you want the recovery to be? Do you intend to cut the tops off your thumbs because they are attached to arteries and they will make you bleed out really fast. We all struggle for meaning because the only meaning is the one we give things even if nobody else agrees. It feels good when others agree though.
The character hates his own prints because to him the prints represent the permanence of his current identity, he happens to dislike his current identity and he believes that if he were to be a nobody he would have the option to build himself anew from scratch.
The prints also represent a visual marker to other people, they notify others of who he is and what to expect from him.
When confronted with the question about the toe prints he confronts an aspect of his form he's never seen before, he discovers that his toes; much like the finger tips he agonizes so much over also have prints. Yet he also realizes that his toeprints are also a set of visual markers of who he is, and thus it wouldn't be too different if they were cut off instead.
The fact that he didn't agonize over his toes till he realized they were there reinforces the irony of the video and prompts him to explore why he can't stop thinking about cutting his fingerprints off.
In deep thought he realizes that he hates his fingerprints because of the way he was shaped by others for having them. People's expectations of him would restrict how much he's able to shape himself. He blames the fingertips because they are the visual indicator that signals to others what to expect of him.
But while deep in thought he realizes also he's no stranger to change and that his fingerprints tell a story much grander than just his own life, they change just as much as he does because as he changes he also redefines what they mean.
Yet the character isn't complete in his convection and is torn between settling by changing his own views and expectations of himself, or changing himself to be more fitting of the expectations of other. At every plateau the character has to question to himself if a certain aspect of himself aligns with societal expectations or if he should forge his own expectations for what he should be, he also combats the allure of having no visual markers, being an invisible person who nobody expects anything from, thusly he thinks of cutting his fingerprints off again.
10/10 video, felt this way many times.
There is no painless way to get rid of your fingerprints, but if for some reason you're still pondering about this, you can burn your fingerprints off, it's as painful as cutting them off, but you'll still have your fingertips
"the more honest I try to be, the more dishonest everthing else becomes."
damn...
I don't really know if this was intentional but I, as a trans person, really felt this video in relation to my struggles with gender dysphoria. Good video, you really hit the nail on the head for me
I’ve been searching the comment section for something like this for 5 minutes now
That never crossed my mind that “fingerprints” could really mean something else and could relate to the trans experience or body dysmorphia in general. I can totally see it now.
Gives me vibes of when you get stuck in a disturbing thought loop on acid and you just want to stop thinking about it, but the harder you try not to think about it the more your mind gets entangled in it. Great vid.
Ever since I got recommend one video from this guy, it just never stops and I swear I'm learning something new and unique in every video I watch.
It’s videos like this that make me love this channel
I interpret this as an artist trying to figure out stuff art style etc and how art changed for them as they got older but I could be projecting
Was I ready for this existentialism? No. Did I understand it? Not really. But I'll be damn well lying if I say that I don't relate to this man. As a twin my fingerprints is one of the few naturally defining factors between me and my sister. I don't know if I want to be different than her or the same, but either way I'm still me and she's still her. Cutting off my fingertips won't change that, it'll only make it easier to pin crimes on her (something I don't want to do). So idk, I don't see any pros or cons other than defining myself as an individual
Life is like a mountain range. We go up and we go down ever moving. At the top, things seem so bright and freeing. If you focus hard enough you can even make out other mountain tops in the future that you'll reach. It's a feeling of confidence and contentment unlike any other. We get excited and motivated looking outward, and see just in front of us a beautiful, fulfilling mountain top worth climbing to be part of. And so with lofty plans and unwavering ambition by the exorbitant amount we set forth down towards the next mountain.
Halfway down you feel good. You remember that view you saw, and despite it being a while ago you know it will be worth it and keep going. You are now at the bottom and concerningly a thought pops on your head. "*what if this is the wrong mountain?..*" Still, you've been at the bottom before right? Just make it to the top and see for yourself. You got this... right? You had before.
You are now half way up the next mountain, your pace has slowed and you find yourself stuck and anxious. Each step is a reminder of how long ago you being at the top has been. Things that felt so good and clear feel like a distant memory. *"Will you ever see the mountain top again?"* *"Are you heading in the right direction, or was it all a mirage?"* *"Can you be happy again?"*
And in that moment when all is lost, remember one thing. Whether you are climbing or falling, ascending or descending. Focus on what you can control, give yourself some slack and more importantly enjoy the ride. Appreciate the journey and more importantly the challenge. Don't shy away from it. Between every mountain climbed will always be doubt, and you didn't let it fool you before!
And If you do see the mountains from up top, high again amongst the mountains, look back on all the other ones you've conquered and feel proud. Then look at all the mountains you had once fallen from and appreciate how far you've come. Give a quick thanks to all that you've passed along the way, and finally look ahead. Outward amongst the clouds floating around the mountains, representing all the dreams just with in grasp, and with an appreciated sigh descend for that next summit.
And in case after all that, you want to chop your fingertips off or stop climbing the mountain, know you aren't alone. And that this journey called being human is a humbling and awkward one. Reach out to those around you, and be true to yourself. And always remember one more thing:
Things that look ugly now or bring us pain in the short term, often become the most beautiful and end up the most rewarding long after. Even something as small and insignificant as a fingerprint. >:0
For some reason I feel like the term "fingerprints" is metaphorical in this story.
This is a beautiful poem
Not once did he bring up sanding or burning the tips.
I enjoy the metaphor of the fingertips being the identity being supposed at the start, however, when brought back up later, it is almost like we forgot it entirely and the idea of fingerprints literally shifting became so foreign of an idea. This is about being lost in understanding who you are, as who you are shifts based on what you are exposed to. It becomes even harder because who you are will change how you see who you are, and you have to wonder who you can trust anymore. Others? Yourself? The simplest answer is that maybe no one knows who you are. Perhaps no one will know, and this is normal. But it's so unsatisfying of an answer. How do we figure out how normal this actually is? Well, who we are will shift how we look at others, too. We could go our entire lives, however long, being totally obsessed with some random ideal as being true. But then it turns out it isn't true, based on greater evidence. Who we are will change how we react to this. Do we accept the change? Do we deny it anyways? Who or what holds the most honor of the situation? Or does no one or.. nothing hold any honor? Any meaning...
I am a firm believer in ontological, purely scientific and wholly logical derivations of absolutely everything. I am scared by all of this, and I want to know what the true meanings held by reality actually are. All I can say is that, the more you discover, the more it hurts. “The truth sears the eyes witnessing it.” This is a quote by me from months ago. I even sent this to my fiancée as a final message when we had issues. I feel very alone in where I am, now. Everything I do or say has to be totally backed up with total, logical explanation or argumentation. If the logic is disbelieved, I see the cracks in others. But it also shines a crack in myself. I understand now that many people don't think about this, care, or pay mind to it, because they want a simpler existence. Simplicity is less painful. But in this, they become ignorant to the truth. The fact that, sometimes, they are actually hurting themselves without knowing by supporting complexity they thought was simple. Simplicity as a conclusion will take complication, first, to create. But when they only look at the surface, they believe I am harmful. I look deeper and believe they are harmful. If we look the deepest, it seems no one is intentionally harmful. Existence forces the conclusion that people will be. Things will be. Is this the iceberg of existence itself? I suppose. The truth sears the eyes witnessing it. I have witnessed so much that I consider myself a sacrifice now. My soul is placed up for handling the complexities others mistakenly create to try and simplify things, so I may actually simplify them and restore some peace, even if I am hated for it. No matter what end you are on, you will always suffer. All we can do is try to minimize it.
So what is my identity? I believe it is subjective. I am what I am witnessed as, to any given person, thing, or situation. Identity is relative. But what of permanent or distinctive identity? Well, really, I am nothing. It is where I come from, where I go, and only during this middle part is there the idea that I am actually something. Really, if there is something that I am, it is just that I am part of everything. Indistinguishable from it. Non-distinct. But if I had not happened, it would be like nothing had changed at all. I believe, now, the true question is that I am matter, but do I matter? What would happen at a loss of balance? Maybe you, the reader, just believe what I am saying is stupid. However, if you do, then you have only proven me correct. However, you would also be correct. I would be stupid. You don't need to believe or see it. Me being here was the same as me not being here at all.
I feel like this feeling is wanting to escape something but never knowing exactly how to get past it. Usually a sort of phrase, idea, or association to that feeling is normalized into something else. Like associating the colour yellow to happiness and liking the colour for its representation you personally think it is. Sometimes it's a phrase like "I want to die" or "I'm bored" but you're not actually meaning those words but the feeling you associated to those words after you used it time and time again to explain that feeling. Eventually the words lose the meaning you thought it was but now it's your only escape and conclusion to your feeling in a bid to make sense of it. And maybe when that coping makes less and less sense as we grow the more we try to fit it back into its place so that the phrase, idea and associated term will still have meaning and there's still hope to feel in control just like how you used to feel back then.
And maybe there is no hope to believe in. Maybe that's just living. And that's pretty terrifying.
i feel you
Honestly thank you, this was an actual eye-opener for me
This man really turned the question “Should I cut off my fingertips?” into an existential crisis
Been there. Done that. Wouldn't recommend.
I always preemptively sit on the toilet when watching your videos in case they make me poop myself
In this case i've been correct
I lost my finger skin once because exema, grew back
Skin always comes back. And idk if this is true but I heard that the very tip of your fingers come back (like you know the rings on your fingers? Roughly on the last one)
@@funkuro no clue
At first I was confused, laughing as I enjoyed the chaos, then I got misty eyed as we thought about meaning, then it got serious... what a wild ride.
your videos are like watching RUclips in a parallel universe where there are wizards and nice fingerprints are a status symbol
I remember having an existential crisis about farts.
If you cut off your fingertips, the skin will regrow as scars, and then it will feel weird when you touch things with your fingers. It may even have decreased grabbing ability.
I commented this seperately, but kinda felt like replying here too because why not.
After cutting about a half a centimeter deep piece off of my fingertip, it grew back to look almost exactly as it was. Took a month or two to completely get rid of the "raw" look, but now there's only a hairline-fracture -looking line on the tip if you look very closely. Otherwise it's perfectly healthy.
Can affect the natural lubrication functionality of the skin also. This is one component of being able to easily grasp things. Not fun in larger areas of skin.
I have on multiple occasions thought about toe prints, so dont cut off your finger tips, wear some glowes man
a non-permanent method is just clear nail polish👀
I like how this video is not what it seems on the surface
Woah, toeprints
I know that it has nothing to do with it, but a transgender person, these feels strangely resonant with wanting to have a mastectomy for all the expectations that comes with having breasts, but that having no breasts comes with an entirely new set of expectations.
This really is a story about feeling boxed in by things you can’t control, or at least I assume. And trying to find anyway to express genuinely, only to find yourself back at the start.
You okay man?
I'm good.
@@MattiasPilhede omg Mattias 🥺 greetings from Hk
"No fingerprints. A one way ticket, to a new identity."
Me after losing mine to cream misusage: "Thanks mate."
There was a mobster that soaked his tips in lye or something to dissolve off his fingerprints so he couldn't be tracked. The problem is is that fingerprints grow back exactly like they were. You'd basically have to cut so deep it never forms a tip again, and by that point the wound's print is even more noticably unique than the print.
just wear gloves
*Third world problems:* "We need to find more water, our only source so far is making the people of the village sick, some of our elders have died already."
*First world problems:*
as a person who accidently removed their fingerprint on one finger with a pair of scissors (only cut skin), they grow back but wrong, they won't match other hand. Any damage will change how they form. They only way you can manage to remove them fully is by acid, more painful and you have numb fingertips after.
Ok this channel is gold
This video makes me feel emotions I never thought I had. I can relate myself so well with this guttural feeling and yet have not a single clue as to what you're trying to point out. At least I learned, because the first time I watched this video nothing really struck me as a thought other than the strange surreal feeling I got when watching it, and that the slight frantic idea bouncing was somewhat relatable. It made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't understand, not even the message it tried to pull from it's short "story". But now? It's clear as to what it meant. Still, scarily relatable, but even then I feel a bit more at peace knowing I'm not the only one out there who feels this way or can peer so easily into the perspective of anyone in a similar situation. Not only that, but I have been slowly improving and the thought of something like this does not seem so scary anymore. I know this is rather- late but, thank you. So much.
These videos are so interesting to me- I’m sick right now and on vacation which sucks but these videos help alot