Can you get shingles in the armpits?

Dear Ask The Doctor: Is it possible to get shingles in a very strange area like in the armpits?

Dear Krystal:

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. Although shingles can occur anywhere on your body, it most often appears as a band of blisters that wraps from the middle of your back around one side of your chest to your breastbone.

If you have pain on that side of your body along with the telltale rash and blisters, your doctor may take a tissue scraping or culture of the blisters for examination in the laboratory.