What Causes Skin Tags — and Should You Remove Them?
You notice a tiny, soft piece of skin on your neck that wasn't there before. Or perhaps you've had several small growths under your arms for years. They're painless, but you might still wonder: Why am I suddenly getting skin tags — and should I be concerned?
Skin tags are extremely common. Their medical name is acrochordons, and they are benign — meaning non-cancerous — skin growths. They can occur in many places, but they particularly like areas where skin folds or regularly rubs against skin, clothing or jewelry.
While skin tags themselves are generally harmless, understanding why they develop — and how they differ from other skin growths — can help you decide what, if anything, to do about them.
What Exactly Is a Skin Tag?
A typical skin tag is a small, soft growth that protrudes from the surface of the skin. Some are attached directly to the skin, while others hang from a thin stalk.
They can be skin-colored, brownish, pink or occasionally red when irritated. Most are small — often just a few millimeters — although larger ones can occur.
Common locations include:
the neck
underarms
eyelids
beneath the breasts
groin
other skin folds
Skin tags aren't contagious, and having one doesn't mean you've done anything wrong with your skincare or hygiene.
What Causes Skin Tags?
There isn't one single established cause.
Instead, skin tags appear to develop through a combination of factors. Researchers have identified several characteristics and conditions associated with a greater likelihood of developing them.
1. Friction and Skin Folds
Have you noticed that skin tags often develop in areas where skin regularly touches skin?
Their preferred locations provide an important clue.
Skin tags commonly occur where skin rubs against skin or where clothing and jewelry repeatedly rub against the skin. This includes the neck, armpits and groin.
Friction and repeated irritation are therefore thought to contribute to their development.
This may also help explain why skin tags are more common in people with deeper skin folds or loose skin.
Science Note
Friction is part of the story — not necessarily the whole story.
Although skin tags commonly occur in areas exposed to repeated friction, scientists have not identified a single mechanism responsible for every skin tag. Genetics, aging, pregnancy and metabolic factors may also play a role.
2. Age
Skin tags become more common with age, particularly from middle adulthood onward.
However, researchers have not established exactly why aging increases their occurrence. This means it is better to think of age as an associated factor rather than a direct cause.
So noticing your first skin tags as you get older isn't unusual.
3. Genetics
If skin tags seem to run in your family, that may not be a coincidence.
A family history of skin tags is associated with a greater likelihood of developing them, suggesting that genetic susceptibility may contribute.
This could help explain why one person develops many skin tags while another person of the same age develops few or none.
4. Pregnancy
Skin tags can become more common during pregnancy.
Hormonal and growth-factor changes have been proposed as possible contributors, although the exact mechanism isn't fully understood. Changes in body shape may also increase friction in certain areas.
In other words, pregnancy appears to be associated with an increased likelihood of skin tags, but we don't yet have a simple biological explanation for exactly why they develop.
Are Skin Tags Connected to Insulin Resistance?
This is where skin tags become particularly interesting from a medical perspective.
Research has repeatedly found associations between multiple skin tags and metabolic conditions including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome. But this requires careful interpretation.
Having a skin tag does not mean that you have diabetes.
Skin tags are extremely common in otherwise healthy people, and a single skin tag — or even several — cannot diagnose insulin resistance or another metabolic condition.
However, multiple or recurrent skin tags are associated with metabolic abnormalities. If you suddenly develop many skin tags, consider having them evaluated by a dermatologist. While this is uncommon, a dermatologist can confirm that the growths really are skin tags and determine whether further medical evaluation may be appropriate.
Science Note
Association isn't diagnosis.
Studies have found associations between skin tags and insulin resistance and other metabolic conditions, but a skin tag itself is not a diagnostic test for diabetes. Your skin can provide clues about health — but those clues need medical context.
Are Skin Tags Dangerous?
Typical skin tags are benign and generally harmless.
They usually don't need treatment simply because they exist.
They can, however, become annoying.
A necklace may repeatedly catch on one around the neck. Clothing can rub against one. Shaving can nick a skin tag in the underarm or another frequently shaved area.
This can cause irritation, tenderness or bleeding.
And there is another reason to pay attention to unfamiliar growths: not every growth that looks like a skin tag actually is one.
Warts, moles and other skin lesions can sometimes resemble skin tags to an untrained eye. More importantly, a growth someone assumes is harmless may occasionally be something that requires medical attention.
If a growth changes noticeably, bleeds without obvious irritation, becomes painful, looks substantially different from your other skin growths or you're simply unsure what it is, having it examined by a dermatologist is the safer approach.
Should You Remove Skin Tags?
If a dermatologist confirms that a growth is a skin tag and it isn't bothering you, there is usually no medical reason to remove it.
Removal may make sense if it:
repeatedly catches on clothing or jewelry
becomes irritated or bleeds
interferes with shaving
causes discomfort
affects vision because of its location around an eyelid
bothers you cosmetically
A dermatologist can choose an appropriate removal method depending on the size and location of the skin tag.
Professional approaches may include snipping the skin tag with sterile instruments, freezing it with cryotherapy or destroying the tissue using electrodesiccation.
These procedures may sound simple, but that doesn't make skin-tag removal a good DIY project.
Why You Shouldn't Cut Off a Skin Tag at Home
It's tiny. It hangs from a stalk. Why not simply cut it off?
There are several problems with this approach.
First, what you think is a skin tag may be another type of lesion. Removing it yourself means losing the opportunity to have an uncertain growth properly assessed.
Second, cutting, burning or chemically treating skin at home can cause:
bleeding
infection
irritation
skin injury
scarring
And applying aggressive acids or other chemicals doesn't make DIY removal safer.
Products marketed online as mole or skin-tag removers may injure healthy surrounding skin, and wart-removal products should not simply be repurposed for skin tags.
A wart and a skin tag are not the same thing.
Common warts are associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) and have different biological characteristics. A product intended to destroy wart tissue can damage the softer, healthy skin surrounding a skin tag.
Can Skincare Prevent Skin Tags?
This is one area where expectations need to be realistic.
There is currently no established skincare ingredient proven to prevent ordinary skin tags from developing.
Retinol, exfoliating acids, vitamin C, niacinamide and other familiar skincare actives are not skin-tag prevention treatments.
And because genetics, age, pregnancy, metabolic factors and friction may all contribute, a skincare routine cannot control every factor involved.
Reducing unnecessary friction may be sensible — particularly if clothing or jewelry continually irritates a particular area — but even that cannot guarantee that skin tags won't appear.
Your regular skincare routine should focus on maintaining healthy skin rather than trying to prevent every benign growth.
When Should You See a Dermatologist?
A familiar, unchanged skin tag usually isn't an emergency.
But professional evaluation makes sense when you're not certain that the growth actually is a skin tag.
Consider having a growth checked if it:
changes noticeably in color, shape or size
becomes suddenly painful
repeatedly bleeds without being caught or irritated
looks different from your other skin growths
develops rapidly
appears alongside many new skin tags over a short period
is located somewhere particularly sensitive, such as the eyelid
Suddenly developing many skin tags is uncommon. If this happens, consider seeing a dermatologist. They can confirm whether the growths are actually skin tags and determine whether further medical evaluation is appropriate.
The Bottom Line
Skin tags may be small, but there's more biology behind them than their simple appearance suggests.
These soft, benign growths commonly develop in areas where skin experiences friction, and they become more common with age. Genetics, pregnancy, body composition and metabolic factors such as insulin resistance may also influence who develops them.
Most importantly, skin tags themselves are harmless and don't automatically need to be removed.
And despite what a bottle of "skin tag remover" online may promise, removal isn't really a skincare treatment. At-home removal can cause bleeding, infection, skin injury or scarring — and there's always the possibility that what looks like a skin tag is actually another type of growth.
If a growth bothers you — or you're not completely sure that it is a skin tag — professional diagnosis and removal are the safer options.
Sometimes good skincare isn't about treating something.
It's knowing when your skin doesn't need to be treated at all.
References
American Academy of Dermatology Association. Skin tags: Who gets and causes. American Academy of Dermatology.
American Academy of Dermatology — Skin Tags
Pandey A, Sonthalia S. Skin Tag (Acrochordon). StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
NCBI Bookshelf — Skin Tag (Acrochordon)
DermNet. Skin tags (Acrochordons). DermNet New Zealand.
DermNet — Skin Tags (Acrochordons)
American Academy of Dermatology Association. Removing moles and skin tags: How dermatologists do it. American Academy of Dermatology.
Comments