The metal hand sign is from an Italian gesture to ward off the evil eye.

Famed singer Ronnie James Dio is considered one of the greatest heavy metal vocalists having fronted a host of legendary bands – Rainbow, Dio, and Black Sabbath. In 1979 when he was replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath he wanted to set himself apart from his predecessor. Ozzy would flash the peace sign during concerts and Dio wanted to do something different. He thought back to a hand gesture his Italian grandmother would use to ward off the “malocchio” or “the evil eye.” From this Dio began to flash the “mano cornuto” or the “horned hand” gesture.

Mano Cornuto

The mano cornuto is related to the Italian cornicello charm of a single horn that looks a bit like a chili pepper. They’re both used as protection against the evil eye. The hand gesture has the index and pinky fingers extended and may have evolved from the idea that the two extended fingers are “poking the eyes” of the person giving you the evil eye.

Coven, then Dio

Coven was an occult rock band formed in Chicago in the late 1960s. The overtly sang about occult magic, satanism, witchcraft, etc. Lead singer Jinx Dawson grew up with relatives in occult secret societies. She began making the metal horns sign as a child. She saw adults using the sign like a secret handshake to other occult members. Coven is credited as being the first band to use the metal horns.

It seems that Dio began using the metal horns without knowing that Coven was already doing so. That said because Dio was using the sign as the vocalist for Black Sabbath (one of the biggest bands in the world) he helped popularize the gesture in heavy metal culture. Soon other musicians, as well as fans, began to make the same gesture and today it’s used all over pop culture. Dio never claimed to have invented the sign but he certainly did more to make it a part of heavy metal than anyone else.

Added info: Gene Simmons of KISS, never one to pass up an opportunity to shamelessly profit off of something, filed an application to trademark a strikingly similar hand sign. In 2017 he tried to trademark the metal hand sign but with the thumb extended instead of tucked in. What Simmons claimed was his also happens to be the sign for “I love you” in American Sign Language. He later withdrew his application but not before Ronnie James Dio’s widow, Wendy Dio, said of Simmons “To try to make money off of something like this is disgusting. It belongs to everyone; it doesn’t belong to anyone. It’s a public domain; it shouldn’t be trademarked.”