Hand heart

For the thumb-and-finger gesture popularised in South Korea, see Finger heart. For the symbol of charity, see Heart in hand.
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Hand heart
Two friends make a "hand heart"
South Korean singer Chuu showing a hand heart in her fan signing event

A hand heart is a gesture in which a person forms a heart shape using their fingers.

The "hand heart" is typically formed by one using both thumbs to form the bottom of the heart, while bending the remaining fingers and having them connect at the fingernails in order to form a heart shape.[1] However, in recent years, the practice has evolved to include people using the index and middle fingers to form the heart, as opposed to using the entire hand.

Often, two people will each form half of a heart, conjoining the two as a sign of affection.[2]

The upside down hand heart gesture was noted in art in 1989, when Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created an art image of the gesture as his first artwork named Family Syntax.[3] The gesture became popular in the early 2010s.[4] This gesture was added to Unicode 14.0 and Emoji 14.0 in 2021 with code point U+1FAF6 🫶 HEART HANDS.[5]

  1. ^ Meltzer, Marisa (2011-08-09). "When Two Thumbs Down Are a Sign of Approval". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  2. ^ "Gen Z can pinpoint Millennials by this simple hand gesture". The Independent. 2022-08-08. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  3. ^ Cué, Elena (2015-01-30). "A Conversation With Maurizio Cattelan". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
  4. ^ Meltzer, Marisa (2011-08-09). "When Two Thumbs Down Are a Sign of Approval". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "Heart Hands Emoji". Emojipedia. Retrieved 2022-08-08.