Skin tone modifier
Five modifier characters (U+1F3FB–U+1F3FF) follow a supported emoji to select one of the Fitzpatrick-based skin tones.
In more detail
A modifier is not a standalone emoji. It attaches to the character before it, and only around 330 entries in the current dataset accept one. Applying a modifier to an unsupported character produces the base emoji followed by a stray colour swatch.
Sequences with several people can carry a tone per person, but only the combinations Unicode lists as recommended for general interchange are guaranteed to render.
Examples
| Example | What it shows |
|---|---|
| 👋 + U+1F3FD = 👋🏽 | Waving hand, medium skin tone |
| 🧑🏻🤝🧑🏿 | Two people holding hands with different tones |
See it for yourself
The Unicode Inspector breaks any text into its code points, so you can watch this behave rather than take our word for it. Paste an example above into it and the structure is laid out step by step.
Source and review
Defined in UTS #51, Diversity. The explanation on this page is written by SymbolTap Editorial; the normative wording is in the linked document.
Last reviewed 2026-07-31.