Michelangelo's bandanna is typically portrayed as orange, his favorite color and his weapons are nunchaku (variously either one or two). He is named after Michelangelo Buonarroti, the famous Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet.

Michelangelo is probably the most light-hearted/relaxed of the Turtles. Being more fun-loving than his brothers, he was given a much bigger role and was more popular in the 1987 cartoon series, directed at children, than in the more serious original comic books. He came to epitomize the early 1990s popular culture incarnation of the TMNT, coining most of their catch phrases; hence, he is possibly the most famous Ninja Turtle. Some refer to Michelangelo as the youngest of the Ninja Turtles, although they are traditionally all the same age. Because Kevin Eastman's original "ninja turtle" concept drawing (1983) portrayed an unnamed turtle with nunchukus strapped to its arms, some consider Michelangelo to be the first Ninja Turtle created.