Where Did These Skin Tags Come From?

Have you ever examined your skin and noticed a skin tag that you hadn’t seen before? Perhaps one developed in your armpit or along the ridge of your eyelid. Skin tags are harmless and commonly develop with age, but let’s look at how they formed in the first place. 

Vitaly Blatnoy, MD, and our team of skin specialists at Orlando Dermatology Center can diagnose and remove skin tags. We have offices in Orlando, Oviedo, Lake Mary, and Casselberry, Florida, where we routinely treat skin tags using safe procedures that won’t damage the surrounding skin.

Here, we talk about how skin tags form, where you might see them, and safe skin tag removal options. 

How to recognize a skin tag

When you first see a skin tag, you might mistake it for a cyst or some other type of skin growth. But skin tags have distinctive identifying features that make them recognizable as such. 

Skin tags can appear in the following ways:

• Soft and fleshy
• Pink-toned, the same color as your skin, or slightly darker
• Attached to your skin by a stalk
• In your skin folds 
• 1-5 millimeters long

Skin tags can grow anywhere but are most common in the armpits, on the neck, under the breasts, and in the groin area. 

How skin tags form

Skin tags don’t develop because of improper skincare or poor hygiene. They grow in places where your skin overproduces skin cells, especially in the surface layers. 

Typically, skin tags form in places where skin rubs against itself. They can also appear in places where clothing or jewelry frequently rubs against your skin, like on your neck if you wear necklaces. 

You’re more likely to develop skin tags if you have family members who have them. Pregnant women are also prone to them because they produce high levels of growth factors, which are natural molecules that drive cell growth. 

Safe skin tag removal options

Removing a skin tag is a personal decision. You might wish to remove a skin tag if you don’t like how it looks, if it’s frequently irritated, or if it bleeds. 

As tempting as it may be, you should never attempt to remove a skin tag on your own. Professional treatments are low-risk and can minimize scarring, so you don’t trade one cosmetic concern for another. 

Our team of dermatologists at Orlando Dermatology Center may recommend one of the following treatments for your skin tag: 

Excision

Excision involves removing a skin tag or growth using a sterile scalpel. This outpatient procedure uses local anesthesia to numb only the skin around the skin tag, allowing you to go home the same day. 

Liquid nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen can be applied to a skin tag to freeze it off. The freezing temperature causes the skin tag to die, and it eventually scabs over. Your dermatologist may snip the skin tag off using a surgical blade after freezing it with liquid nitrogen. 

Cauterization

Cauterization applies extreme heat to the skin tag, which stops any bleeding that would occur from removing it. This procedure can burn off the skin tag or stop the bleeding, but not both. 

Get in touch

Do you have one or more bothersome skin tags? Don’t wait to get in touch. Book an appointment online or over the phone at your nearest Orlando Dermatology Center today.