It is a sign of ownership. She is putting her mark on you, saying that this one is mine. Its fairly universally recognized, and generally people will leave it alone. As for me, I prefer to leave bite marks on mine, but thats me.
Hickeys are a mark of passion. They are often done in the heat of the moment. Contrary to popular belief, hickeys should be shared as a token of physical affirmation and pleasure as opposed to showing ownership over a partner.
Alternatively, possessive types may use love bites as a mark of possession to show everyone else you are taken. In which case you should take that as a red flag. For others it's a show of affection. Simply a regular part of a passionate kissing session.
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.
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.
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.
And others don't want to be marked by their partners. 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.
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, 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.
If you have a light or medium skin tone, expect more red and yellow in your bruising. If your skin is darker, you may have more purple tones to your bruise. Most hickeys start as a dark red or purple oval. Like other bruises, they will change color over time as they heal and fade.
"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.