IM pretty sure the lesions i had were shingles, they match the pictures online exactly, and my kaiser pcp when i was 20, positively identified it as shingles just by examining the lesions, herpes zoster, prescribe me with acyclovir. by the time i reached the doctor, some of them already bursted and already oozing out orange fluid, and there was blood leftover in the craters.

I had itching, numbness, intense jabs of pain, around the blisters, the vesicles are exactly like herpes. I had active lesions when it was diagnosed. I also had aseptic meningitis at that time. i was left with permanent scarring, itching, hypersensitivity and random minor pains(nowhere near as much as when i had it., the blisters were in a belt like fashion. The lesions are related to the dermatome its affecting, and dorsal root ganglia it reactivated in. I do have pictures of my scars.

My presentation was, on first days before symptoms appear i notice when after i was showering i notice these odd red bumps on the left side of my torso right under the left rib cage, i though they were pimples, red inflmaed bumps. Then few days later the blisters appeared, and at the same time my meningitis also was coming on.
2nd day was when my back and neck were so stiff i could barely turn my head or my body, i had also had lower back pain where the shingles affected nerve was. The blisters were filling with fluid.
the next few days the blisters merged into 10 current lesions, and started to become cloudy, and bubbly, like bubble wrap. Then it fills with blood, and then the end of that whole week it bursted, and left a raw crater.
herpes zoster and shingles look nothing alike.