Rings for men are more than jewelry. They reflect intricate languages of personal narratives. Across the spectrum of personality types, each finger plays a distinct role in power balance and hierarchy.
The Pinky Finger
The little finger, also known as the pinkie finger, is one of the most intriguing fingers on a human hand. Sandwiched between the thumb and index finger, it does not perform any major functions, but is still very important to our overall hand strength. That said, this digit is not often the subject of much discussion or reverence. It is often considered a bit of an oddball, and it has been given some pretty bizarre nicknames in the past.
In the Middle Ages, men wore their pinky rings as a symbol of their wealth and power. They were a popular place to put a signet ring, which was typically engraved with the wearer’s initials or coat of arms, and used as a seal for important documents.
It is also believed that the pinky finger has a direct line to the heart, and it was once common for people to give this digit as a gift to a loved one to demonstrate their love and commitment. Today, a man’s pinky ring can be worn to commemorate a personal milestone or achievement, as a reminder of his hard work and success, or even as a symbol of the power of his own inner strength and confidence.
Interestingly, a pinky ring is also a great way for women to showcase their individuality and independence. In fact, the ring’s popularity amongst women is part of a larger movement toward breaking down gender stereotypes and embracing feminine empowerment and personal style.
Many online personality tests claim to be able to tell a lot about a person based on their pinky and ring finger lengths. For example, if your pinkie finger is the same length as your ring finger, it means you are self-aware and enjoy balancing your introversion and extroversion. It also suggests you are a good listener and empathetic, and that you have an ability to see things from other perspectives. If your pinkie finger is shorter than your ring finger, on the other hand, it shows you are naturally a leader and have an intuitive nature.
The Ring Finger
The ring finger is the A-lister of the hand, usually hogging the spotlight with engagement and wedding rings. But this finger is more than that, reserving its spot as the symbol of commitment in almost any relationship or friendship. It also carries the weight of balance, power, and responsibility.
Before medical science could explain blood flow, it was thought that a vein ran directly from the ring finger on the left hand to the heart, giving it its other, more sinister names: the leech finger and the love finger. These beliefs may have influenced the popularity of rings worn on this finger as a sign of love and devotion. Many married men wear a wedding band on this finger; engaged people wear an engagement ring; and some committed relationships have promise rings worn on this finger until the couple is ready to take the plunge.
In western cultures, this finger is linked to Apollo, the Greek god of music, truth, healing, and poetry. It’s a finger that calls for commitment of every kind: married couples put their rings on this finger, while some people in serious relationships choose to wear promise rings; and some religious devotees wear purity rings.
Men traditionally wear their wedding band on their left hand. But there are exceptions to the rule, and deciding which hand to wear a ring depends on your personal preferences and style. The main thing to remember is that each finger represents a different part of your personality, and each ring can tell a unique story of its own. So don’t be afraid to experiment with the placement of your rings and see how they change the way you look!
The Middle Finger
Long before punk rock and eight-lane highways, Romans and medieval Europeans were using their middle fingers to give the finger to their enemies. The Roman historian Tacitus, for instance, wrote that German tribesmen gave advancing Roman soldiers the finger, and the notoriously crass Roman emperor Caligula was rumored to give the finger to anyone who annoyed him. And, in modern times, the middle finger has served as a defiant gesture of choice for anti-establishment artists from Joe Strummer of The Clash to Tupac Shakur and beyond.
What’s more, the length of our middle finger, like that of our index finger and pinky finger, follows the Golden Ratio, a mathematical ratio observed throughout nature and art. It’s likely that this ratio is part of the reason why the middle finger is seen as an obscene gesture in many cultures around the world.
But despite its historic phallic symbolism, the middle finger doesn’t seem to have the same iconic power as other hand gestures such as an A-OK or a Finger Bang. In a recent experiment, researchers asked participants to view one of three hand gestures and then respond to a prompt: “p e n.” The results suggest that viewing the Middle-Finger doesn’t increase responses to p e n — at least not when compared with the A-OK gesture.
Interestingly, the Middle-Finger gesture doesn’t appear to lead people to think about penises or the word penis either, which may help explain its loss of iconicity over time. Gestures that derive from imagistic representations tend to lose iconicity over time as they shift from their original functional role into other functions, as discussed by psychologists McNeill and colleagues.
But if the Middle-Finger gesture does continue to shift its function away from representing the phallus and toward demonstrating contempt, it’s possible it may pick up new iconoclastic power again in the future. This is because the Middle-Finger gesture appears to be a good example of how gestures that begin as emblematic symbols can acquire new, non-representative meanings that can bleach away their older senses over time.
The Thumb
Thumb rings are among the most underrated pieces of jewelry. Not as popular as other finger rings, they offer a blank canvas to symbolize whatever the wearer wants without society imposing a rule. Moreover, their location on the hand, away from popular choices such as the ring and center fingers, makes thumb rings more eye-catching, making them an ideal piece of jewelry for men who want to convey strength, power and character.
Although many people use the word “thumb” as a synonym for finger, most medical guides consider it to be a different digit, due to its unique size, bones, joints and function. The scientific name for the thumb is digitus primus manus, which means “first finger of the hand.” It can be used in conjunction with other fingers to form a fist, but is considered one of five distinct digits rather than a part of a full hand, as the others are.
The thumb is unique in that it is fully opposable to the other digits, a feature that probably developed early in human evolution. This is illustrated in an illustration from John Napier’s classic Scientific American article, ‘The Thumb and its Place in the Hand,’ showing the thumb and index finger of an adult gorilla, the opposable thumb of a Olduvai hominid and the opposable thumb of modern humans.
A fully opposable thumb allows the thumb to reach into crevices that the other digits can’t, as well as grasp objects with greater force. The thumb also serves as a fulcrum, supporting the weight of the other digits when picking up or holding something.
People who use their thumbs a lot may have trouble controlling other digits, resulting in clumsiness and bungling. A common expression is to be “all thumbs,” as in, clumsy or bungling: “She’s all thumbs when it comes to driving.”
Other animals have partially opposable thumbs, including some dinosaurs, so they could grasp prey and other items. It’s not known why humans developed an opposable thumb, but anthropologists have speculated that bipedal locomotion freed the thumb for independent movement. Other possibilities include that the opposable thumb evolved to grab tree branches as early humans walked, or that the thumb may have been useful for manipulating stone tools and other hard materials. Regardless, the thumb is an important tool in daily life. An absent thumb can cause severe emotional distress, especially in children. In cases where the thumb is missing entirely, it can be surgically restored through a procedure called pollicization.
