Bandana

Jack Sparrow wearing his trademark red bandana.

"How it look, Cap’n?
Makes you look older. Here, tie this bandanna around, like this. Much better! I doubt if even Blount would recognize you. At least in this light."

―Chamba and Jack Sparrow

A bandana (also spelled bandanna) is a large, often colorfully patterned scarf worn around the head, typically with a knot tied at the back. They were commonly worn by pirates, either as the sole covering for their head, or beneath a hat such as a tricorne.

History

Captain Teague wears a bandana.

"Here, tie this around me upper arm, so I don’t rub those stitches out."

―Jack Sparrow to Robert Greene

With a bandanna on his head, and his fingers, neck, and ears adorned with jewels, the pirate king of Isla Esquelética, the legendary Stone-Eyed Sam, cut a very striking―not to mention intimidating―figure.

Lady Esmeralda, the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, owned a bright red bandanna which she wore over her hair from time to time. When her ship, the Venganza, encountered the heavily damaged EITC merchant ship the Wicked Wench, a victim of a rogue pirate attack, she decided to assist the merchant crew. Once she bandaged the wounded captain, Jack Sparrow, she used the bandanna to secure the bandages in place. A few months later, when Jack turned to piracy, he put the bandanna on his head and used it throughout many of his adventures. It was over this bandana that Jack Sparrow's piece of eight, as well as his bone and ear picker trinkets, dangled. He also wore different bandanas on two notable occasions, a green one during the final battle of Armando Salazar's campaign, and a blue one during Hector Barbossa's first mutiny on the Black Pearl. Jack's father, Captain Teague, wore a dark green bandana with floral patterns beneath his hat.

During the quest for the Shadow Gold Catastrophe Shane wore a green bandanna covered in tiny daisies around his neck. A bright red bandanna covered Grandmama's thick gray curls. By the time of her grandson's attack on King Samuel's fortress she replaced it with a bright purple bandanna over which she wore a floppy black hat.

During his time as a pirate, Hector Barbossa had a bandana that was light blue in color, usually worn beneath the large, feathered hat that dominated his head. Davy Jones wore a red bandana beneath his large tricorne hat. After becoming captain of the Flying Dutchman, Will Turner emerged from the sea at the helm of his ship, wearing a light green bandana.

Behind the scenes

One of Howard Pyle's illustrations of a pirate wearing a bandanna.

"I remember the first day I came in for fittings and stuff and I saw pictures of Johnny with all his bandana and his dreadlocks and I thought 'Christ. I look like an ice cream and these guys look so cool'."

―Jack Davenport

Bandanas first appear in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jack Sparrow's bandana appears to be a darker shade of red in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but has a more faded, pinkish color in the following films.

In the French novelization of the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, when Jack Sparrow receives a tribute from the crew of the Wicked Wench, it includes a rabbit's foot, an earring, pearls and a red bandana.

The popular image of pirates began in the 1880s with Howard Pyle's illustrations, which frequently included buccaneers wearing brightly-colored scarves around their heads. However, contemporary documents and historians, such as Alexandre Exquemelin, do not mention any such headgear.

Appearances

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean (First appearance)
• Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
• Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song
• Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
• Jack Sparrow: The Age of Bronze
• Jack Sparrow: Silver
• Jack Sparrow: City of Gold
• Jack Sparrow: The Timekeeper
• The Price of Freedom
• Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean
• Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East
• Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (video game)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2006 junior novelization)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (comic)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  • Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel