How emoji skin tone modifiers work
When you pick a skin tone for 👍, you're not choosing a different emoji — you're appending an invisible modifier character to the base one. Five tones are available, based on a dermatology scale.
The Fitzpatrick scale
The five skin-tone modifiers (code points U+1F3FB to U+1F3FF) are based on the Fitzpatrick dermatological scale. Add one after a supported base emoji and the renderer recolors the emoji:
'👍' + '\u{1F3FD}' → 👍🏽What can be modified
Only emoji depicting skin — hands, people, body parts — accept tone modifiers. Objects and symbols ignore them. A default (yellow/non-human) form shows when no modifier is present.
Combined with ZWJ
Skin tones stack with ZWJ sequences, so a two-person emoji can carry two tones — which is why some emoji expand into surprisingly long code-point sequences that older devices may not fully support.
Frequently asked questions
How do skin tone emoji work?
A base emoji is followed by one of five Fitzpatrick modifier code points, and the renderer combines them into a toned version.
Why can't I change some emoji's skin tone?
Only emoji depicting human skin support tone modifiers; objects and symbols don't.