Skin tag (acrochordon)

A skin tag, also called an acrochordon, is a small bit of extra skin that grows outward and often ends up dangling. It's benign, meaning it isn't cancer, and it feels soft. It usually hangs from a thin stalk, which is why it's described as pedunculated: picture a tiny grape attached to your skin by its stem. Skin tags tend to show up where the skin folds, like the neck, armpits, groin, and eyelids.

Inside, a skin tag is made of the same stuff as the rest of your skin. Skin comes in layers: the outer one is the epidermis and the one beneath it is the dermis, and a skin tag sprouts from those layers. Its core is dermis full of collagen, the protein that keeps skin firm, but packed loosely, like soft stuffing. Running through it are capillaries, the body's tiniest blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels, small channels that drain fluid from the tissues, and in a skin tag those vessels are wider than usual. Frequent skin irritation has been pointed to as a cause.

Skin tags are a common finding, and they're seen more often in people with obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, a group of metabolic problems that tend to occur together. They don't hurt, although they can catch on clothing or a necklace. And here's the reassuring part: the risk that a skin tag becomes malignant, meaning it turns into cancer, is very low or none at all.