Left-facing Fist Emoji

A fist pointing to the left, designed to pair with 🤜 (right-facing fist) to form a fist bump: 🤜🤛. By itself it's half a gesture, the other hand waiting for its partner.

The fist bump goes by many names: a pound, a dap, a bro fist, a spud, or a "safe." The gesture shares DNA with the handshake (peace/greeting), the high five (celebration), and the raised fist (solidarity), but occupies its own lane: casual respect without formality.

Before 🤛 and 🤜 existed (pre-2016), the only fist emoji was 👊 (oncoming fist), which faces the viewer and reads more as a punch than a mutual greeting. Unicode fixed this in Emoji 3.0 (2016) with directional fists from proposal L2/16-308. The convention is 🤜 first, then 🤛: right fist meets left fist.

The pair supports mixed skin tones (🤜🏾🤛🏻), which makes it one of the few emoji gestures that can depict an interaction between two distinct people.

Approved in Unicode 9.0 (June 2016) as U+1F91BU+1F91B LEFT-FACING FIST.

🤛 almost always appears paired with 🤜. Sending 🤛 alone looks like a fist punching to the left, which reads as incomplete. The pair 🤜🤛 functions as a greeting, agreement, congratulations, or casual "well done." It's the digital dap.

The fist bump emoji combo signals camaraderie without vulnerability. Unlike 🫂 (hug) or ❤️, it's emotionally safe. You can send 🤜🤛 to anyone, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, without it implying intimacy. That's its strength and its limitation: it says "respect" without saying "love."

In gaming and esports, 🤜🤛 is the standard team celebration. In workplace Slack, it's a casual "nice work" that feels less formal than 👏 and more collaborative than 👍. During COVID-19, the fist bump replaced the handshake as the recommended greeting. A 2014 study found handshakes transfer 10 times as many bacteria as fist bumps, and that data went viral in 2020 when health officials recommended safer greetings.

The "exploding fist bump" variation (bumping fists then pulling back with an explosion gesture and sound effect) has its own culture. Some people add 💥 between the fists (🤛💥🤜) to capture that energy in text.

The fist bump likely started on basketball courts in the early 1970s. TIME magazine credits NBA rookie Fred Carter as one of the earliest practitioners. In the winter of 1970, Carter walked into the Baltimore Bullets locker room and bumped fists with Wes Unseld, Gus Johnson, and Earl Monroe to hype up his teammates before a game.

But there's an earlier claim. Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial used the fist bump in the 1950s and 60s because he caught too many colds from shaking thousands of fans' hands. His hygiene instinct was validated by science 60 years later.

The gesture hit national TV in 1977 when the Wonder Twins on Super Friends touched fists and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" Then in June 2008, Barack and Michelle Obama's fist bump at the Democratic primaries became one of the most discussed gestures in political history. Fox News anchor E.D. Hill called it a "terrorist fist jab" on air. Her show was cancelled. Her contract wasn't renewed.

The emoji version arrived in Unicode 9.0 (2016). 🤛 (U+1F91BU+1F91B) and 🤜 (U+1F91CU+1F91C) were designed as a pair in proposal L2/16-308 by Peter Edberg (Apple/Emoji Subcommittee). Before them, 👊 was the only fist emoji, and it couldn't form a convincing side-by-side bump.

The fist bump is an American export that spread through sports and hip-hop culture. In formal business cultures (Japan, Germany, much of Europe), it would feel too casual for a first meeting. The handshake or bow remains expected.

During COVID, the fist bump crossed cultural boundaries it hadn't before. Health officials recommended it worldwide as a safer alternative to handshakes. The gesture went from youth/sports culture to diplomatic protocol overnight. Some of those habits stuck.

Howie Mandel popularized the fist bump on Deal or No Deal as an OCD accommodation. His refusal to shake hands, documented in his autobiography Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me, normalized the fist bump for people with touch aversion.

In martial arts traditions, the fist bump has a different lineage. In boxing, fighters touch gloves before a bout as a sign of mutual respect. The gesture predates the casual greeting by centuries.

• •Fred Carter of the Baltimore Bullets is credited by TIME as one of the earliest fist bumpers, pumping up teammates in the locker room in the winter of 1970.
• •Stan Musial used the fist bump in the 1950s-60s to avoid catching colds from handshakes. His instinct was validated by a 2014 study showing handshakes transfer 10x more bacteria.
• •The fist bump has many names: pound, dap, bro fist, spud, "safe." In boxing, fighters touch gloves before a bout as a sign of mutual respect.
• •The Wonder Twins (1977) may be the first nationally televised fist bump. "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" became a catchphrase that outlived the show by decades.
• •Fox News anchor E.D. Hill called the Obamas' fist bump a "terrorist fist jab" in June 2008. Her show was cancelled within a week.
• •🤜🤛 supports mixed skin tones (🤜🏾🤛🏻), making it one of the few emoji sequences that visually depicts an interaction between two different individuals.
• •In Big Hero 6, the Baymax fist bump ("ba-la-la-la-la") was improvised by voice actor Scott Adsit. EW published an oral history of just this one scene.

• •🤛 alone (without 🤜) reads as punching to the left, not greeting. Always pair them for the fist bump meaning.
• •In formal cultures (Japan, Germany), a fist bump can feel too casual. 🤝 is the safer choice for first interactions in business contexts.
• •Don't confuse 🤜🤛 (casual greeting) with ✊ (political solidarity). Same hand shape, completely different register.

• •Fred Carter and the NBA (1970) — Baltimore Bullets rookie Fred Carter is credited by TIME as one of the earliest fist bumpers, hyping up teammates in the locker room.
• •Wonder Twins (1977) — "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" with fists touching. Possibly the fist bump's national TV debut.
• •Obama's 'terrorist fist jab' (2008) — Fox News anchor E.D. Hill called the Obamas' fist bump a "terrorist fist jab." Her show was cancelled. Her contract wasn't renewed.
• •Baymax's 'ba-la-la-la-la' (2014) — The Big Hero 6 fist bump became one of Disney animation's most emotional moments. Voice actor Scott Adsit improvised the explosion sound.
• •Howie Mandel on Deal or No Deal — Mandel's OCD and germaphobia made him famous for fist-bumping contestants instead of shaking hands. His autobiography is titled Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me.

• •Codepoint: U+1F91BU+1F91B. Unicode name: LEFT-FACING FIST. Part of Unicode 9.0 (2016), Emoji 3.0.
• •Skin tone modifiers: U+1F91B U+1F3FBU+1F91B U+1F3FB through U+1F91B U+1F3FFU+1F91B U+1F3FF. Mix tones across the pair: 🤜🏾🤛🏻🤜🏾🤛🏻 represents two different people.
• •Common shortcodes: :left_facing_fist::left_facing_fist: or :left-facing_fist::left-facing_fist: (Slack, Discord). Some platforms also accept :fist_left::fist_left:.
• •The fist bump (🤜🤛) is two separate codepoints, not a ZWJ sequence. Line-breaking algorithms may split them. Wrap in white-space: nowrapwhite-space: nowrap to keep them together.
• •Designed as a pair with U+1F91CU+1F91C (🤜). Convention: 🤜 first (right), then 🤛 (left).

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