While typically harmless bruises, hickeys can pose rare but serious risks, primarily due to blood clot formation near the neck's major arteries (carotid artery), potentially causing a stroke, as seen in documented cases involving significant trauma, especially for individuals with underlying clotting issues. Most often, hickeys are just temporary discoloration, but signs like persistent pain, lumps, sudden paralysis, or other unexplained bruising warrant immediate medical attention.
For the first 48 hours after getting the hickies, avoid activities that may increase swelling, such as hot showers, hot tubs, hot packs, or alcoholic beverages. Protect the area from further “trauma.” Gently massage the hickey to increase blood flow and relieve pain. Be careful not to rub the area if it hurts too much.
A hickey shouldn't cause any real problems, but see a doctor if: The hickey doesn't go away after a couple of weeks.
It's not impossible that a hickey could cause a blood clot that leads to a stroke, but it's incredibly unlikely, according to Charles Abrams, president of the American Society of Hematology and a hematologist at the University of Pennsylvania. It could happen if a person's blood vessels are torn during the chomp.
Neutralize the Discoloration
Use a green color corrector for red undertones or a peach corrector for purple tones. Lightly dab it on the hickey and blend out the edges to balance the skin tone before applying foundation.
Meaning, to give someone a hickey on, say, a forearm or quad would be tougher than the neck or inner part of the elbow! While less typical, some people do notice love bites on places like the chest, thighs, or even their stomach — but these usually take more suction or pressure to develop.
You can apply a warm compress for 5 to 10 minutes to your hickey once or twice a day. For your compress, you can use a reusable heating pad. You want to make sure that the compress is warm but not hot. If the compress is too hot, it can burn the already damaged skin, making redness worse and skin changes more obvious.
Internal jugular vein thrombosis, which is a blood clot in a vein in the neck, can show up with various symptoms. These might include redness, swelling, and a warm feeling along a major neck muscle (the sternocleidomastoid). Such symptoms can make it look like a neck infection, like cellulitis.
However, can you get blood clots from a bruise? While rare, it's possible that deep bruising could increase the risk of developing a blood clot. This is more likely in scenarios where someone has deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a clotting disorder, or has experienced severe physical trauma.
The experience of a hickey being used as a "mark of ownership" makes them especially unpopular. We live in a society where no one should be the property of another person. So: There's little against hickies, but a lot to be said for putting them on your partner in places where not everyone can see them.
Best Excuses to Use to Explain Away a Hickey
They are usually found on the neck. However, the skin in the crook of your elbow or on the inner thigh are also pleasurable locations.
You want to suck hard enough to create a decent seal but not so hard that you cause pain. This will take about 20–30 seconds. After you're done, the hickey will typically start to appear right away and may get more intense over the next hour. The bruise will first appear pink or red and then start to darken.
I know this isn't what you really want to hear, but when in doubt, the easiest (and fastest) way to hide a hickey is with your favorite concealer or foundation. But if you really want to cover that bruise, you'll want to first start with a color corrector to help disguise some of the red or purple tones.
Hickeys happen when the pressure from another person's mouth sucking on your skin breaks blood vessels, which creates a bruise.
The five key warning signs of a deep vein blood clot (DVT) often include swelling, pain/tenderness, warmth, redness/discoloration, and sometimes visible veins, usually in one leg or arm, while signs of a pulmonary embolism (PE) like sudden shortness of breath or chest pain are medical emergencies. Recognizing these symptoms early is crucial, as DVT can travel to the lungs, causing a potentially fatal PE.
Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States, and for most of the nearly 800,000 Americans who suffer a stroke each year, the culprit is hypertension. It is also a significant risk factor for heart disease.
A hickey is sometimes used to mark someone as being the target of a partner's romantic affection or as belonging to them.