Warts are small, rough skin growths caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). They typically look like firm, raised bumps with a rough or grainy texture, ranging from the size of a pinhead to the size of a pea. But warts can also be flat, thread-like, or cauliflower-shaped depending on the type and where they appear on the body.
Common Warts on Hands and Fingers
The most recognizable type is the common wart, which usually appears on your hands and fingers. These feel like rough, dome-shaped bumps with a grainy surface. They’re flesh-colored, white, or grayish, and they often have tiny black dots scattered across the surface. Those dots look like seeds, but they’re actually small blood vessels that have clotted inside the wart.
Common warts typically range from about 1 millimeter to roughly the size of a pea. They can appear alone or in clusters, and they often develop near fingernails or on the backs of hands. The surface feels distinctly different from surrounding skin, almost like a small piece of cauliflower or a rough pebble embedded in the skin.
Plantar Warts on the Feet
Plantar warts grow on the soles of your feet, and because of the constant pressure from walking, they get pushed inward rather than growing outward. This makes them look flat or even slightly recessed, covered with a thick layer of hard skin. Many people mistake them for calluses.
The key difference: a plantar wart disrupts the natural lines of your skin (your fingerprint-like ridges on the sole), while a callus follows those lines. Plantar warts also often have the same tiny black dots visible inside them. If you pare down the thickened skin on top, you may see small black or red pinpoints from clotted blood vessels underneath. Calluses never have these dots. Plantar warts can be painful when you walk, particularly if you squeeze the sides of the growth rather than pressing directly on it.
Flat Warts
Flat warts look completely different from the rough, bumpy common wart. They’re very small, between 1 and 5 millimeters across, no bigger than the head of a pin. Instead of being raised and rough, they have smooth, flat tops that barely rise above the surrounding skin. Their color varies: yellow, brown, pinkish, or simply skin-colored.
What makes flat warts distinctive is their sheer number. They almost always appear in groups or clusters, sometimes up to 100 or more at once. They’re most common on the face, forehead, and legs. On the face, they can follow a line where the skin was scratched or irritated, because the virus spreads easily through minor skin damage. Because they’re so small and smooth, flat warts are easy to overlook or confuse with other skin blemishes.
Filiform Warts on the Face
Filiform warts have a very distinctive shape. They look like thin, finger-like projections or tiny threads sprouting from a narrow base. They tend to appear on the face, particularly around the eyelids, lips, nose, and chin. Because of their elongated shape, they can look like small skin tags at first glance, but they grow faster and have a rougher texture. They’re usually flesh-colored and painless, though their location on the face makes them cosmetically bothersome.
Periungual Warts Around the Nails
Periungual warts grow around and under the fingernails or toenails. They start as small, rough bumps near the cuticle and can spread beneath the nail plate over time. As they grow, they can push the nail upward, distort its shape, or cause the cuticle to disappear entirely. The nail itself may become ridged, thickened, or detached from the nail bed.
These warts are particularly stubborn because their location makes them hard to treat, and they can cause permanent nail deformity if left alone for a long time. Nail biters and cuticle pickers are more prone to them because broken skin around the nails gives the virus an entry point.
Genital Warts
Genital warts appear in the genital and anal areas as small bumps or clusters of bumps. They can be raised or flat, small or large, and sometimes take on a cauliflower-like shape when grouped together. They’re typically flesh-colored or slightly darker than surrounding skin. Some are so small and flat they’re nearly invisible, while larger clusters are more obvious. Genital warts are caused by specific strains of HPV that spread through sexual contact.
What a New Wart Looks Like Early On
Warts don’t appear overnight. The virus can take weeks or months to produce a visible growth, so the earliest stage is essentially invisible. A new wart may first appear as a tiny, slightly raised spot that feels a bit rougher than the skin around it. At this point, it’s easy to dismiss as dry skin or a minor bump. Over time, it becomes more defined: the surface gets grainier, the borders become more distinct, and the characteristic rough texture develops. Black dots may not appear until the wart has been growing for a while.
How Warts Differ From Similar Growths
Several other skin growths look similar to warts, and telling them apart matters because the treatments are different.
Molluscum contagiosum (sometimes called “water warts”) are raised, dome-shaped bumps that are flesh-colored with a pearly or waxy sheen. The biggest visual clue is a small dimple or depression in the center of each bump. Warts don’t have this central indentation. Very small molluscum bumps can look like early plantar warts, which sometimes leads people to apply wart treatments that won’t work.
Calluses, as mentioned, follow your natural skin lines and lack black dots. Skin tags are soft and hang from a thin stalk, while filiform warts are firmer and rougher. Moles are usually smoother, more uniform in color, and have been present much longer.
What Warts Look Like During Treatment
If you have a wart treated with liquid nitrogen (freezing), expect the appearance to change significantly in the days that follow. A blister forms at the treatment site, which may be clear or filled with blood. After four to seven days, the blister or resulting scab dries up and falls off. The skin underneath is often lighter than the surrounding area, and it can take a few months for the color to return to normal. Multiple treatments are common, so you may go through this cycle more than once before the wart is fully gone.
Over-the-counter treatments with salicylic acid gradually turn the wart white and peel away layers of dead skin. The wart will look increasingly pale and flaky as the treatment works. Regardless of the method, a wart that’s truly gone leaves behind smooth skin with no remaining black dots and restored skin lines.