How do I look up NIC handles for whois?

Sometimes, I look up the whois for an IP address, and only see NIC handles listed. How do I look up those handles directly using the command line whois client? I've tried whois but that doesn't work. I see that there is a -T option, but for the life of me can't figure out what type I should put for a NIC handle. Better yet, is there a way to have each NIC handle listed by whois automatically looked up as part of the original query?