whorl

The team also noted oddities in the tissue, such as a small number of axons that formed extensive whorls.

Photographic series he made there, like “Westtexaspsychosculpture,” depict forlorn whorls of fencing-wire debris that look like uncanny mimics of Wool’s own writhing scribbles, and which inspired scaled-up versions cast in bronze.

Though these grafts developed successfully at first, over time the well-defined topography of the ear -- its familiar ridges, curves, and whorls -- were lost.

Now he had a permanent record of the highly specific whorls and ridges.

It beats staring into the whorl of a spiral-cut ham and wondering how things might have been different.