Clipping Skin Tags: How to Remove Them Safely

Most skin tags (acrochordon) don't need to be removed for health reasons. Still, many people choose to have them removed for cosmetic reasons, or, for example, if the skin tag rubs against their clothes.

Don't try to cut off a skin tag yourself at home. The safest, most effective way to remove a skin tag is to have your healthcare provider take care of it.

This article covers how healthcare providers clip skin tags. It also lists some do-it-yourself methods that you may have heard about, and what you should know if you are thinking about trying them.

What Are Skin Tags?

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Skin tags are small, soft skin growths that form when the skin rubs against itself. Skin tags can be anywhere on the body, but they tend to be located near skin folds, such as the neck, underarms, torso, eyelids, and inner thighs.

Skin tags are either dark or flesh-colored. They are usually about two to five millimeters in size, but can grow up to half an inch. They are usually painless but can become irritated if they catch on clothing or jewelry.

Nobody knows why skin tags form, though some risk factors have been identified, including:

• Hormone imbalances
• Being overweight
• Diabetes
• Pregnancy, possibly due to hormone changes
• Certain infections, particularly human papilloma virus (HPV)
• Genetics
• Older age
  

Skin tags can sometimes be confused with warts, neurofibromas, or nevi (moles). But by simply looking at the skin growth, your healthcare provider should be able to tell whether it is a skin tag or something else.

Why It's Not Safe to Clip a Skin Tag Yourself

Whenever you cut your skin, you risk damaging the tissue and creating a route for infection to get in.

It's unlikely that anyone has the sterile environment, proper tools, and medical know-how to remove a skin tag safely at home.

Healthcare providers, of course, do. They can also examine the skin tag to make sure it's not something else. What you think could be a skin tag could, in fact, be another skin condition—even skin cancer.

And if you're overweight, have skin tags, and haven't seen a doctor in some time, your provider may not only remove your skin tags but test (and, if necessary, treat) you for diabetes.

How Professionals Remove Skin Tags

Providers can remove skin tags in a few ways:

• Clipping: A provider can use a pair of iris scissors to snip off a small skin tag. No lidocaine or local anesthesia is needed.
• Shave excision: A provider can shave off a larger skin tag. Local anesthesia is applied first.
• Cryotherapy: A provider can freeze the tag off by dipping a pair of forceps into liquid nitrogen and grabbing the lesion until it turns white. Because of how quick it is, this option works well for those with a lot of skin tags.
• Electrodesiccation: A provider can dry out the skin tag by applying an electrical current. It can be used for skin tags that are too small to be grabbed with forceps.

A skin tag might bleed when it's removed. To stop bleeding from a skin tag, a provider can use a cotton tip applicator that contains aluminum chloride.

They will also ensure that the area is properly cleaned before and after to prevent infection, and may give you care instructions for covering for protecting the wound until it is healed.

At-Home Skin Tag Removal Methods

Instead of cutting off a skin tag yourself, there are some home remedies that some people have used in an attempt to make skin tags go away.

You can ask your provider if it would be safe to try these methods at home. Just know that there's no guarantee they'll work.

• Patches: Pharmacies and big box stores often carry over-the-counter products that claim to remove skin tags. Skin tag removal patches are made with ingredients that tend to dry out skin or exfoliate dead skin. Some patches don't have any of these ingredients and work by applying pressure instead.
• Bands: Similar to a patch that puts pressure on a skin tag, bands wrap around the tag and cut off its blood supply. If it's not getting blood, the tissue will die. When this happens, the tag may fall off.
• Creams: Some of the ingredients in patches also come in creams, ointments, or serums. The products may also be used to remove warts. If you're sensitive to the ingredients in these products, even if they're meant to be used on the skin, it can cause irritation.
• Freezing: You can get OTC kits to "freeze off" warts and skin tags. Most of these products use different strengths of salicylic acid.
• Oils: More "natural" approaches to skin tag removal use tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar, vitamin E, and even iodine to dry the tag out in hopes it will fall off. There hasn't been much research evidence that these methods will work.
• Food: Another way to try to remove a skin tag without medicine is putting antioxidant-rich foods like garlic or a banana peel on the skin tag, covering it with a bandage, and letting it sit overnight. No studies have proven these methods to work.

Summary

Although you may figure that removing skin tags is as simple as grabbing a pair of scissors from the cupboard drawer, it isn't.

First, skin tags should be removed by a trained healthcare professional who can do so in a sterile environment. Second, skin tags often accompany diabetes, a much more serious problem that requires medical evaluation.

A Word From Verywell

Many insurers refuse to cover the cost of skin tag removal because the procedure is done for aesthetic reasons. There are some exceptions, however, such as if a skin tag has become infected.

If you are enrolled in a plan, be sure to speak with your insurance company before scheduling an appointment to have skin tags taken off.