

As did his hair, Shanks' face changes as the manga's art style progresses: initially, it appeared more youthful, a soft jawline tapering down to a small, pointy chin.

Additionally, Shanks' left arm is missing from below the deltoid, as a result of him saving Luffy from a Sea King when the future Straw Hat captain was just a child. On his face resides a secondary trademark: a triple set of parallel, linear scars that pass vertically, at an angle over his left (untouched) eye, revealed to have been given to him by Blackbeard some unknown time before the start of the series. In later appearances (at ten years older), he is shown with slightly longer hair, wavier and more slicked back than before except for some few strands he lets fall down the sides of his face, pushed farther sideward than said prior bangs. Shanks' first-seen hairstyle was a straight, middle-parted one kept loosely down to nape length, with shorter (at eye level), curtained bangs in the front. Worthy of note is that, uniquely among all characters seen so far, even ones with a comparable hair tone, Shanks' hair is the sole one filled with grayscale in the black-and-white manga (instead of inked black or left white). True to his epithet, Shanks has distinctly red hair: usually depicted across media as deep-crimsonish. Among the original lineup of the Four Emperors, he stood out as the smallest, most normal sized by far, the others being various degrees of inhuman proportions. Shanks is a tall man (just under two meters), well-built, tan-complexioned, and in the prime of his mid-adulthood.

Notably, Shanks is the pirate who inspired Monkey D. Sailing with the Roger Pirates since he was an infant, Shanks would begin his pirate career on their ship as an apprentice alongside Buggy, before forming his own crew after Roger's death. "Red-Haired" Shanks, commonly known as just "Red Hair", is the chief of the Red Hair Pirates and one of the Four Emperors that rule over the New World.
