Study Finds Water-Induced Wrinkles Form Consistently

Recent research from Binghamton University, State University of New York, has confirmed that wrinkles formed on the skin after prolonged water exposure appear in the same pattern each time. This finding builds on earlier work by Guy German, who previously investigated the cause of water-induced skin wrinkling. Contrary to the common belief that swelling causes these wrinkles, German’s earlier research determined that the contraction of blood vessels beneath the skin is responsible.

When German shared his earlier findings through The Conversation’s Curious Kids feature, a student asked: “Yeah, but do the wrinkles always form in the same way?” Realizing he did not know the answer, German initiated a new study to investigate the consistency of wrinkle patterns. 

In their study, published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, German and co-author Rachel Laytin conducted experiments in which subjects submerged their fingers in water for 30 minutes. After photographing the resulting wrinkles, they repeated the process at least 24 hours later under identical conditions. The results showed that the raised loops and ridges formed in the same patterns after each immersion. German explained, “Blood vessels don’t change their position much—they move around a bit, but in relation to other blood vessels, they’re pretty static. That means the wrinkles should form in the same manner, and we proved that they do.”

An additional observation involved a participant with median nerve damage, whose fingers did not wrinkle after immersion, supporting previous reports about the nerve’s role in the process. 

Beyond satisfying scientific curiosity, German noted that these findings may have practical applications in forensics, such as fingerprinting and identifying bodies after water exposure.