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Health A-Z

Medical Content Created by the Faculty of the
Harvard Medical School

What Is It?

A skin tag is a soft, skin-colored growth that hangs from the surface of the skin on a thin piece of tissue called a stalk. Its medical name is acrochordon. Skin tags are not skin cancers and cannot turn into skin cancers.

Skin tags typically appear as people age. They are quite common in people 60 and older. A tendency to develop skin tags may run in families. Skin tags often develop after weight gain or pregnancy.

Skin tags appear most often in skin folds of the neck, armpits, torso, beneath the breasts or in the genital region. They can become irritated if they are in an area where clothing or jewelry rubs against them, and they may be unsightly.

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From Health A-Z, Harvard Health Publications. Copyright 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Written permission is required to reproduce, in any manner, in whole or in part, the material contained herein. To make a reprint request, contact Harvard Health Publications. Used with permission of StayWell.

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