Skin Tags (Acrochordon)

Diagnosis

Doctors can recognize a skin tag easily by looking at it. For a skin tag with a characteristic appearance (soft, easily moveable, flesh-colored or slightly darker and usually attached to the skin surface by a stalk), you won't need any tests. If you notice that a skin growth is too firm to be wiggled easily, is a different color than surrounding skin, is multicolored or has raw or bleeding areas, ask your doctor to examine it. If it is not obvious that your skin growth is a skin tag, your doctor may want to do a biopsy, which means he or she will remove a small piece of skin to be examined in a laboratory.

Expected Duration

Skin tags are permanent growths unless you have them removed. Many people develop multiple skin tags.