Most warts are small, rough, skin-colored bumps that feel grainy to the touch. They range from the size of a pinhead to the size of a pea, and many have tiny black dots scattered across the surface. Those dots are not seeds, despite the common nickname. They’re actually small blood vessels that have clotted inside the wart. Beyond that basic description, warts look quite different depending on where they grow and which type you’re dealing with.
Common Warts on Hands and Fingers
Common warts, the type most people picture, typically show up on your fingers, the backs of your hands, and around your nails. They have a raised, dome-shaped profile with a rough, bumpy surface that can look like a tiny cauliflower. The color usually matches your skin tone or appears slightly grayer or yellowish. The black dots are most visible in this type, often sprinkled across the top of the bump.
These warts feel firm and rough when you run a finger over them. They can appear alone or in small clusters, and the skin lines (the fine ridges you see on the rest of your skin) stop at the wart’s border rather than continuing through it. That interruption of normal skin lines is one of the easiest ways to tell a wart from a normal bump or callus.
Warts Around and Under Nails
Warts that grow near the fingernails or toenails deserve special mention because they look and behave differently. A wart at the edge of a nail appears as a rough, crusty bump that can push the nail upward or distort its shape over time. When the wart grows underneath the nail plate, it can create a visible line of discoloration or cause the nail to separate from the nail bed in a narrow strip. You might also notice tiny dark streaks under the nail, caused by small areas of bleeding within the wart tissue. These warts tend to be more stubborn and more uncomfortable than warts on flat skin.
Plantar Warts on the Feet
Plantar warts grow on the soles of your feet, and because you walk on them, they get pushed flat into the skin rather than growing outward. Instead of a raised bump, you’ll see a thick, rough patch of skin with a well-defined border. The surface often has a slightly spongy, yellowish appearance and may look like a callus at first glance.
A few things set plantar warts apart from calluses. First, the normal skin lines on the sole of your foot will curve around a plantar wart instead of passing straight through it. Second, the black dots (clotted blood vessels) are usually visible if you look closely, sometimes appearing in a honeycomb-like pattern across the lesion. Third, pinching the wart from the sides tends to be painful, whereas pressing directly down on a callus is what usually hurts. Plantar warts can also cluster together into what’s called a mosaic wart, forming a larger, flat plaque made up of many smaller warts packed tightly side by side.
Flat Warts
Flat warts look nothing like the rough, bumpy common wart. They’re very small, between 1 and 5 millimeters across (no bigger than the head of a pin), with smooth, flat tops and slightly raised edges. Their surface is almost polished-looking rather than grainy. They tend to be skin-colored, slightly pink, or light brown.
What makes flat warts distinctive is their tendency to appear in large numbers. You might notice 20, 50, or even more of them grouped together. They commonly show up on the face, the backs of the hands, the neck, and the legs. They’re especially common along scratches, cuts, or shaving lines, because the virus spreads easily through broken skin. In men, the beard area is a frequent site because daily shaving creates repeated tiny nicks.
Filiform Warts
Filiform warts have the most unusual shape of any wart type. Instead of a round bump, they form narrow, finger-like projections that stick out a few millimeters from the skin surface. They look almost like tiny spikes or threads growing from a small base. They’re skin-colored or slightly darker and tend to appear on the face, particularly around the mouth, nose, eyes, and chin. In men, the beard area is another common location. Because of their shape and prominent placement, filiform warts are often the most cosmetically bothersome type, even though they’re typically painless and small.
How Color Varies by Skin Tone
On lighter skin, warts usually appear flesh-colored, pinkish, or light tan. On darker skin tones, they can look brown, grayish-brown, or noticeably darker than the surrounding skin. This hyperpigmentation can sometimes make warts on darker skin easier to confuse with moles or other pigmented spots. Regardless of skin tone, the texture clues remain the same: rough surface, interrupted skin lines, and the presence of black dots in many cases.
When a Bump Might Not Be a Wart
Most warts are harmless, but certain skin growths can mimic the look of a wart while being something more serious. A few features should prompt a closer look from a dermatologist. Be cautious about any bump that bleeds repeatedly or doesn’t heal, has an irregular or poorly defined border, grows rapidly over a few weeks, has a central depression that crusts over, or appears as a pearly or waxy nodule. These characteristics can overlap with certain skin cancers, including squamous cell carcinoma, which can occasionally look like a thick, rough wart.
A good general rule: if a growth is new, changing in size or color, or looks different from anything else on your skin, it’s worth getting checked. Warts are extremely common and almost always benign, but a visual check by a professional can rule out the rare exceptions quickly.