Re: What causes 'hickies' and what is a scienctific name for them?

Dear John,

The scientific term for "hickeys" is ecchymosis from the Greek "ek" for out and "khumos" for juice, in other words to suck the juice out of your neck or more medically speaking to extravasate blood. Indeed a hickey is nothing else than a bruise! Bruises are caused by ruptures of capillary blood vessels in the subcutaneous tissue. The extravasated blood pools into the surrounding tissues and cause the typical purple/red discoloration of the skin. The breaking of the blood vessels may be caused by a variety of physical abuses to the skin (bumping into an object, falling, strangling, etc...) but in the case of hickeys, the damage is created by the vacuum applied to the neck or other parts of the body by the lips and mouth of the hickey donor.

Note that hickeys are more likely to occur in areas where the skin is thin (and hence capillaries are closer to the surface) such as the neck or medial aspect of the arm or the abdomen. Areas such as the back or thighs benefit from a thicker epidermis and hence are much less susceptible to vacuum-caused ecchymoses.