Hanky Code

[Bttm2go]

Love the comments. I posted a very slimmed down version of the code because it has become ridiculously long and complicated. When I do wear the colors I usually limit it to one or two depending on what mood I’m in. Sometime I may wear an armband piped with the color—usually red. I also have a harness piped in red. Here in Palm Springs where there is a sizable leather community, just about every guy understands what I am flagging.

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Bttm2go
Change jpeg size

[Read1]

This hanky codes was around in Toronto when I was 18 and first coming out. Alas, I did not bother to learn or memorize it.

Sexpigs, does any one of you know who or in what year/what city this color code was first developed?

[backdoorjimmy]

I'm Navy blue on the right, beige on the right, light blue on the right, mustard on the right, yellow on the right and brown on the right. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by backdoorjimmy
Add yellow hanky

[Guest]

5 hours ago, PissPigBrooklyn said:

Grey R (I could never do knots)

So I guess you were never in the Boy Scouts? 🤪

[evilqueerpig]

Back when I lived in Brooklyn, LURE was my haunt.  The bartender would comp me my first beer and the rest of the night, I drank from the tap.  He said I was good for business.  As you can guess, I flagged yellow right!

[Spunkinmyarse]

8 hours ago, RawUK said:

I always wear a leather wrist wallet when in sex clubs and always on my right wrist. Most guys I've encountered seem to realise the significance.

Left = top

Right = bottom

Or how I always remembered it, Right = receive 

It mostly works for me anyhow and if I see a guy with one on each wrist I've always gone with that he's vers.

Yeah, I often wear a bicep band on my right arm, but then I get bottoms hitting me up thinking that right = top!  It‘s not well understood, especially by the younger generation... sometimes I think I should just bite the bullet and get the words ‘Fuck Me’ tattooed on my arse instead, just so there’s no misunderstanding.

[AirmaxUK]

You think hankies are complicated? Anyone remember the online derivatives of the Hanky Code, known as the Twink Code and Bear Code? (In use circa 1995) 

People use to put these strings of letters and numbers in their email and usenet signatures to flag their interests and how they identified. 

You'd see things like:  B8 d++ f? w++ k--?

This is a Bear Code description of Father Christmas and translates to:

B8: Very long beard
d++: DADDY with a vengence!
f?: furry in a bearish sense (no hard visual info available)
w++: BIG TEDDY
k--? totally vanilla (no hard visual info available)

First there was the Bear Code and then the Twink Code.

I can't find a full description of the Bear Code but here is a link to the full Twink Code:

[think before following links] http://user.xmission.com/~trevin/twink112.html

Back then I used: T6C2L1sh-da--w-c+y-e+g+f-k+++s+++q--

 

[Bttm2go]

If you go to Wikipanion (app) or Wikipedia (web) search for “handkerchief code” and you’ll get all the history you want. Both New York and San Francisco claim credit for it in the early seventies. I first encountered it in Chicago during the eighties.

[RawUK]

7 minutes ago, Spunkinmyarse said:

Yeah, I often wear a bicep band on my right arm, but then I get bottoms hitting me up thinking that right = top!  It‘s not well understood, especially by the younger generation... sometimes I think I should just bite the bullet and get the words ‘Fuck Me’ tattooed on my arse instead, just so there’s no misunderstanding.

To be honest looking at your body, I'm not surprised that you get hit up on, top, vers and bottom! 

I do know what you mean though. When in a sex club I sometimes do get attention from daddy chasers who want me to top. I've never topped in my life and I'll be chasing tops for as long as I can get away with it!

But yes, having now read through most of this thread I do agree that not only knowing your left from right is useful, but some easy way to seek out other barebackers in a club without guessing would be good too. That's why I also often wear a G-Star Raw t-shirt. I've even been cruised the old fashioned way in the street before now wearing the tee in my pic and went back to his for a great session and of course condoms weren't even mentioned as he rightly assumed that with the tee I was wearing I was certainly up for it raw.  

[RawUK]

8 minutes ago, AirmaxAndy said:

You think hankies are complicated? Anyone remember the online derivatives of the Hanky Code, known as the Twink Code and Bear Code? (In use circa 1995) 

People use to put these strings of letters and numbers in their email and usenet signatures to flag their interests and how they identified. 

You'd see things like:  B8 d++ f? w++ k--?

This is a Bear Code description of Father Christmas and translates to:

B8: Very long beard
d++: DADDY with a vengence!
f?: furry in a bearish sense (no hard visual info available)
w++: BIG TEDDY
k--? totally vanilla (no hard visual info available)

First there was the Bear Code and then the Twink Code.

I can't find a full description of the Bear Code but here is a link to the full Twink Code:

[think before following links] [think before following links] http://user.xmission.com/~trevin/twink112.html

Back then I used: T6C2L1sh-da--w-c+y-e+g+f-k+++s+++q--

 

OMG that looks so complicated but interesting too as have never heard of the Bear Code and Twink Code. 

I guess it's a modern technical version of polari in a way but there again not really. 

[SpectreAgent]

Then, of course, there was always the ring on the little finger - left or right. And my first fella advised me to wear my watch on my right hand...

Do any Londoners recall that you should always travel in the last carriage on the Northern Line to seek out pickups? I’m not sure that’s been the case for years and don’t know why it was the Northern Line...unless it’s because it’s the Underground line that serves Hampstead...

[SpectreAgent]

4 hours ago, Bttm2go said:

Love the comments. I posted a very slimmed down version of the code because it has become ridiculously long and complicated. When I do wear the colors I usually limit it to one or two depending on what mood I’m in. Sometime I may wear an armband piped with the color—usually red. I also have a harness piped in red. Here in Palm Springs where there is a sizable leather community, just about every guy understands what I am flagging.

 

God, I’m hard pushed the recognise a face in a sauna or a bar without my contacts. How I’d navigate that, I don’t know...😂

[408curious]

Just do not mention brown on this website, you'll get an infraction. 

[Riverfk]

4 hours ago, RawPlug said:

God, I’m hard pushed the recognise a face in a sauna or a bar without my contacts. How I’d navigate that, I don’t know...😂

 

9 hours ago, Bttm2go said:

Love the comments. I posted a very slimmed down version of the code because it has become ridiculously long and complicated. When I do wear the colors I usually limit it to one or two depending on what mood I’m in. Sometime I may wear an armband piped with the color—usually red. I also have a harness piped in red. Here in Palm Springs where there is a sizable leather community, just about every guy understands what I am flagging.

 

Mosquito netting, hot.

[Guest perverthomoslave]

I think that the main issue with the hanky code was/is that it never got truly standardized; so people just kept on adding meanings arbitrarily if they didn't find their very specific fetish, adding colors specific for ethnicities (which I'd like to think is so irrelevant nowadays), people kept on getting confused about what side receives and what side gets (because it changed depending on the kink), and since there are only so many basic colors out there there started to be additions like different shades of the same color (which got more people confused) or a stripe of a certain color or a specific finish/material... Don't get me wrong, as a fashion choice these get me excited, but when I want to find someone that shares my kinks this only adds frustration that I could've avoided by being upfront and asking "hey you wanna record me while I lick your asshole?". I really want the hanky code to come back for the whole community (and not just the leather community and older guys who still recognize it) because it's so convenient, but there should be some set standard as to what means what, it should be made more accessible to colorblind people, and make it more flexible so that it's not only hankies that are used, but also bracelets or even clothes.