The handkerchief code (also known as the hanky code, the bandana code, and flagging) is a way for gay men to recognize each other on the streets, bar, clubs, movies, and parks. It uses location and colors of the hankies to indicate the sexual interests of the potential sex partners.

Gay men wear different colored hankies in their back pockets to represent their favorite fetish or fetishes. It also represents whether they are more top or bottom. If you wear one of the following hankies in your left pocket you are normally considered a top. If you wear the hanky in your right pocket you are more bottom. Some people wear the hanky around their neck representing they are versatile (top and bottom).

It used to be a very simple code with just your basic colors like black (SM), red (fisting), yellow (piss), gray (bondage), brown (scat), etc. Somehow this list has begun taking on the entire rainbow of colors.  So don’t take it too seriously if you see some esoteric color.

This long elaborate lists, like others found on the web, are more imaginative and the many color codes in them are less often used in practice, although most of the colors in longer lists are offered as bandanas for sale at almost all LGBT leather stores along with free color code cards listing their meanings.