It’s the mark of a true violinist--sort of. It funny that, of all places, I first learned about the hickey at church, and then started to want one myself.
The choir conductor had rounded up every kid in church who played a string instrument to play in the orchestra for the annual Mother's Day festivities. To my slight dismay I was given the second violin part but I had only been playing for a handful of years then, so it wasn't unusual. What did surprise me was that I would be sitting next to Bart, who was several years older than me, an eighth grader and teenager. I wasn’t in middle school yet, but I would be in a year and I was more terrified than intrigued about entering next year.
He was the only eighth grader playing second violin-- probably to lead the rest of the section lest we get lost-- and his other two peers were in the first part. They teased him in that coquettish, junior high way: “Wow, I can’t believe you’re only playing the second violin part.” “Yeah, shouldn’t you be playing, like, the twelfth violin part?" But Brian took it all in stride. “Alright, okay, maybe I’m not great like you guys, but I do have this!” And with the screw end of his bow he pointed to a brown thumbprint-sized mark on his neck. “Touch it, it’s real.” The two other girls ewwed but still reached out to his neck to feel. Since I was there and watching he let me touch it too. As I moved my finger from the regular part of his neck to the mark I felt a distinct difference in texture, from the soft and slightly wrinkled to a bumpier rougher textured area, like the skin on your knee. I was slightly horrified but didn't have time to ask, as the conductor came to the podium to start our rehearsal. By chance I looked over at the other two first violin players before they lifted up their violins onto their shoulders and realized they had the same mark on the same place on their necks.
After rehearsal one of the other girls explained to me that a lot of violinists (and violists) got this sort of hickey from the way the instrument would rub against the neck. “Cellists and bassists get callouses on their fingers, but we get this”.
It wasn’t that I really actively searched them out, but every now and then when I was walking through the streets or to or from my lesson I would find other people with the hickey. It bears a distinct color and size which make it easy to distinguish from typical non-instrumental lovemarks, but it still varies from violinist to violinist and depending on how the musician holds the instrument between chin and shoulder. Gross as it looks, I wanted one of my own to distinguish myself as part of the club, akin to a young gang inductee getting fresh ink to show his/her status. It's a pitiful motivator for practicing more violin, but it worked--for, like, a week.
But even some professional violinists don't have the hickey. And some people who do have one on their neck don't like them-- just like regular ol' people try to hide their neck marks. I still think it'd be cool to have one and coyly point it out and say "Julian Matthias did this to me" but that's never going to happen. I'm just going to have to stick with using the only other bit of string instrument player-related innuendo, about fixing up my G-string, wink wink hahaha.
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