Jess
If it is shingles - then my memory is that it will feel like a cross between pins and needles, a deep bone ache in the bones under the rash, and what you imagine a spider bite feels like - all rolled into one.

I got shingles in my left buttock and then running around my left hip and down the front of my left leg after bushwalking. Before I was diagnosed with shingles I was sure I'd been bitten by a spider. It felt so weird.