U+2620 · emoji since 2015
The skull and crossbones is the classic danger and poison sign, and the flag of every pirate ever. It warns, threatens playfully, or sets a spooky tone.
Online it doubles for the laughing-to-death feeling, like the plain skull, when something is so funny you are deceased.
In texting, ☠️ does not carry a widely used hidden or slang meaning, so you can usually take it at face value. People send it just as it looks, to add a little visual touch or set the mood of a message. Only a handful of emoji have a separate texting code, and ☠️ is not really one of them.
Its official Unicode name is the Skull and Crossbones emoji. In everyday chat most people just call it the skull and crossbones emoji or describe what it shows. Copy and paste it from the button at the top of this page.
The ☠️ leads off a short phrase, and the rest of the words are written in cipher, every letter disguised as another emoji. Tap decipher to reveal the whole line.
Or make your own cipher in the translator.