Browsing Google search results for 'fingerprint blog', I ran across this entry on an adoption site, where subject was told his prints 'failed' because

“Some people just have bad prints that can't be recorded at the level required to read them effectively.”

While this is not impossible, it's very unlikely, and a few comments on that entry had also been given bad information.  I felt obligated to post a comment myself:

“Fingerprints vary in quality from person to person, but it's likely that yours are fine (meaning, OK).

Generally speaking, 'blue collar' type workers (i.e. stone masons, builders) can have terrible fingerprint ridge structure...they're constantly wearing off the skin that forms the ridges. The same is also true for folks (again, generalizing) who shuffle a lot of paper (i.e. bank tellers, envelope-stuffers), because the paper has a similar effect.

In the *vast* majority of cases, though, bad recording of fingerprints is due to operator error...and the quality produced by ink/paper (done properly) still beats any computerized recording system in existence.”