Some friction ridge patterns have distinctive features which can be especially valuable in identifications. Scars, dysplasia/dissociated ridges, warts, blisters, or other abnormalities that interfere with normal ridge flow should be marked as distinctive features. These features are physical aspects of the friction skin itself, not issues specific to the impression (such as smudging). Minor cuts (white lines) that do not affect ridge flow are not considered scars.

Enclose the relevant area with a polygon, with the appropriate code from the table. Physical abnormalities must be marked when performing a search under the Detailed Markup Search Profile.

Other unusual features such as feature clusters or a large area with no minutia, may be marked as Distinctive Features for casework annotation; marking of these unusual features is optional.