HPV warts are small, skin-colored or off-colored bumps that vary in shape depending on where they appear on your body. Some are rough and dome-shaped, others are flat and smooth, and genital warts often have a distinctive cauliflower-like texture when they cluster together. Because HPV causes several different types of warts, knowing what to look for depends on the location.
Genital Warts
Genital warts are the type most people are thinking about when they search for HPV wart appearance. They show up on or around the genitals and anus as flat or slightly raised bumps on the skin’s surface. A single wart may be barely noticeable, but when several grow close together, they create a bumpy, cauliflower-like cluster that’s easier to spot. The surface feels rough or textured when touched.
Color varies with skin tone. On lighter skin, genital warts tend to be pink, pearly, or flesh-colored. On darker skin, they often appear slightly darker than the surrounding area, ranging from brown to grey. They can also look white. Some genital warts are so small and flat that you can’t see them at all without close inspection, while in people with weakened immune systems, they can occasionally multiply into large, visible clusters.
One important detail: genital warts can take months or even years to appear after you’re first exposed to HPV. So a new bump doesn’t necessarily mean a recent infection. Warts can also disappear on their own and then return in a different spot, which makes them tricky to track.
Common Warts on Hands and Fingers
Common warts are the firm, rough-surfaced bumps that typically show up on your fingers, the backs of your hands, or around your nails. They have well-defined borders and a round or slightly irregular shape, usually between 2 and 10 millimeters wide (roughly the size of a pencil eraser or smaller). The surface looks grainy, almost like a tiny dome of rough skin. They’re generally flesh-colored or slightly grey-brown.
Plantar Warts on the Feet
Plantar warts grow on the soles of your feet and look different from other HPV warts because the pressure of walking pushes them flat into the skin rather than letting them grow outward. Instead of a raised bump, you’ll see a thick, callus-like patch with a well-defined edge. The telltale sign is tiny black dots scattered across the surface. These are sometimes called “wart seeds,” but they’re actually small, clotted blood vessels.
When multiple plantar warts cluster tightly together on the foot, they form what’s called a mosaic wart, a flat patch made up of many small warts side by side. These can cover a larger area and are sometimes mistaken for a callus.
Flat Warts
Flat warts are the smallest and smoothest type. They measure between 1 and 5 millimeters across, no bigger than the head of a pin, and sit nearly flush with the skin rather than forming a raised bump. Their color ranges from yellowish-brown to pink to skin-colored. They most commonly appear on the face and the tops of the hands, but they also spread along areas that get shaved. In men, that means the beard area. In women, the legs are a common site. You may also find them on the fingers and arms.
Because they’re so small and flat, individual flat warts are easy to overlook. They tend to appear in groups of 20 to 100, though, which makes the cluster more noticeable even when each wart is tiny.
How to Tell HPV Warts From Look-Alikes
In the genital area especially, several harmless growths can mimic warts and cause unnecessary worry.
- Skin tags are soft, flesh-colored growths that dangle from a thin stalk. When you press a skin tag, it bends easily and feels soft. HPV warts, by contrast, sit flat or slightly raised against the skin and feel firm or rough. Skin tags range from about 1 millimeter to 2 centimeters and don’t have the bumpy, cauliflower texture of warts.
- Pearly penile papules are tiny, smooth, dome-shaped bumps arranged in one or two rows around the rim of the penis head. They’re uniform in size and spacing, which sets them apart from the irregular shape and random placement of genital warts.
- Vestibular papillomatosis consists of small, smooth projections on the inner labia. They appear in symmetrical patterns and have a soft, regular texture, unlike the rough, asymmetric clusters of genital warts.
Warts That Aren’t Visible
Not all HPV warts grow on the outer skin where you can see them. Warts can develop inside the vagina, on the cervix, or inside the anal canal. Internal warts typically cause no pain and no visible signs you’d notice on your own. They’re usually found during routine exams like Pap smears or visual inspections by a healthcare provider. If you have external genital warts, internal ones are worth checking for, since the same strains of HPV can affect both areas.