Where it comes from
The face is the Japanese katakana ツ (tsu), the arms are a backslash and underscores, and the macrons ¯ are the raised hands. The backslash is often swallowed by Markdown, so people end up posting a one-armed ¯_(ツ)_/¯ by mistake.
When to use it
Use it in chats and replies when something is out of your hands or not worth worrying about. It can sound dismissive, so skip it when someone asks you for serious help.
Examples
- No idea why the build passed this time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Pizza or ramen? Both are fine with me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Variants to copy
What it is made of
Every character in the face with its Unicode code point — handy if one shows up as a box on a friend's phone.
¯
U+00AFmacron\
U+005Creverse solidus_
U+005Flow line(
U+0028left parenthesisツ
U+30C4katakana letter tu)
U+0029right parenthesis/
U+002Fsolidus