“Hickey” is a slang term for a bruise caused by sucking or kissing a person's skin during a passionate moment. A hickey can be a trophy from a pleasing make-out session, but it can also be point of shame: something that a girl feels she must hide from her parents and teachers.
Hickeys can be used as symbols of one's unavailability to the public. But they are not always intended for this purpose. I would venture to say that most hickeys don't have a purpose other than pleasure. In the heat of the moment, you might just get caught up and accidentally suck too hard for too long.
Hickeys are usually a sign of desire, passion, and romance and a way of marking territory or a loved one. It may simply be a passionate reminder of one's love for another. Remember that hickeys are sexual marks and people will often assume that you had an extra passionate time last night.
Adults get hickeys exactly the same way teenagers do - by sucking on one another's skin to create a small bruise - but they usually choose not to do it. A hickey on the neck is a visible mark of sexual activity. It may be a mark of: Pride (“I have a girlfriend! We make out!”)
There's never any reason to shame someone for having a hickey mark — like all forms of consensual sexual behavior, you don't have to justify someone making out with your neck — but the paradox of the hickey is that it takes something private and creates a public, lingering effect.
“Hickeys are like marking territory. They represent an intimate thing that happened and make me feel like a caveman,” he said. “The adrenaline and dopamine rush from that alone is enough to get me going.” It's easy to get carried away, but consent and communication are still important.
"It's not the hickey itself that's making you aroused, it's the act of kissing that's causing the arousal," Dr. Jaber says. For some people, it can feel good to get kissed on the neck. The neck is full of nerve-endings, which can make a kiss there a lot more pleasurable.
A hickey shouldn't cause any real problems, but see a doctor if: The hickey doesn't go away after a couple of weeks. The bruise is very sore. You notice other bruises on your body, especially if you don't know how you got them.
Give her a hickey in the heat of the moment.
The hickey is best delivered during a heated make-out or lovemaking session, in the height of passion, when it feels the most sensual. Wait until you've been kissing this girl for at least a few minutes.
There's nothing wrong with giving a hickey unless it hurts the person getting one. Hickeys vary in size and color depending on the length of time and how strongly the skin is sucked. They can happen anywhere on the body, but the skin on the neck is often where they show up.
Check for a bruise on the neck or shoulder area.
Most hickeys happen on the exposed skin above the collarbone. Those areas are kind of hard to bruise by accident, so a hickey is usually the culprit. People with hickeys usually cover them up by wearing scarves or turtlenecks.
A hickey is known as a kiss mark or love bite, it looks like a round purple-red mark and is the result of sucking, biting or aggressive kissing of the soft skin, typically around your neck.
Simply a regular part of a passionate kissing session. Usually the recipients are quite happy to show off to their mates that they're getting some. Although this behaviour is usually reserved for those just beginning their dating lives. By the time you've got your 30th love bite, the novelty just kinda wears off.
: a temporary red mark produced especially in lovemaking by biting and sucking the skin.
A hickey, hickie or love bite in British English, is a bruise or bruise-like mark caused by kissing or sucking skin, usually on the neck, arm, or earlobe. While biting may be part of giving a hickey, sucking is sufficient to burst small superficial blood vessels under the skin.
However, hickeys (and other markings) can be controlling and abusive if there isn't consent. It's important to ask and talk about what each partner is comfortable with and to respect boundaries.
If a guy wants to give you a hickey, it could mean that he is attracted to you and that he wants to show his affection for you in a physical way. A hickey is a mark left on the skin when someone sucks on it with their mouth, and it is often seen as a sign of passion and affection.
Hickeys start out red because of the intact red blood cells in the bruise loaded with hemoglobin underneath the skin. After a few days, the red blood cells begin to break down, and shades of blue and purple appear. You may even see some shades of brown as your body breaks down the red blood cells (Jeney, 2013).
"Hickeys are bruises and bruises change color over time, typically going from purple-red to black-blue, and then yellow-green before healing,” says Aude.