Skin cancer can look like a pearly bump, a scaly red patch, a dark irregular mole, a sore that won’t heal, or even a streak under your fingernail. There’s no single appearance, because the three main types of skin cancer each show up differently on the skin, and all of them look different depending on your skin tone. Knowing what to watch for on your own body is one of the most practical things you can do, since skin cancers caught early are almost always treatable.
Basal Cell Carcinoma: The Most Common Type
Basal cell carcinoma accounts for the majority of skin cancer cases and tends to grow slowly. On lighter skin, it often appears as a slightly transparent or pearly bump that’s skin-colored or pink. You might notice tiny blood vessels visible on or near the surface. On brown and Black skin, the same type of cancer often looks like a brown or glossy black bump with a rolled, raised border.
Not all basal cell carcinomas look like bumps. Some show up as a flat, scaly patch with a raised edge. Others resemble a white, waxy, scarlike area without a clearly defined border, which can make them easy to overlook. A hallmark clue is a spot that bleeds, scabs over, and then bleeds again without fully healing. If you have a “pimple” or small wound that keeps cycling through bleeding and crusting for weeks, that pattern alone is worth getting checked.
Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Rough, Scaly, Persistent
Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common skin cancer and tends to develop on areas that get repeated sun exposure: the face, ears, neck, hands, and forearms. Its most recognizable form is a firm nodule on the skin. Depending on your skin tone, it can look pink, red, brown, or black. Many squamous cell carcinomas have a rough, scaly, or crusty surface that doesn’t go away.
Other forms include a flat sore topped with a hard crust, a rough scaly patch on the lip that may break open, or a new raised area developing on an old scar or wound. Sores or rough patches inside the mouth also fall into this category. The key feature that separates squamous cell carcinoma from ordinary dry skin or eczema is persistence. A scaly patch caused by dry weather improves with moisturizer and resolves on its own. A squamous cell lesion stays, grows, or comes back in the same spot.
Melanoma: The ABCDE Checklist
Melanoma is less common than the other two types but far more dangerous because it can spread to other organs. It usually starts in or near an existing mole, or appears as a new dark spot on the skin. The National Cancer Institute uses five visual features to help identify it:
- Asymmetry: One half of the spot doesn’t match the other half.
- Border: The edges are ragged, notched, or blurred, and pigment may bleed into the surrounding skin.
- Color: Multiple shades appear within the same spot, including combinations of black, brown, tan, white, gray, red, pink, or blue.
- Diameter: Most melanomas are larger than 6 millimeters across (roughly the size of a pencil eraser), though they can be smaller.
- Evolving: The spot has changed in size, shape, or color over the past few weeks or months.
A normal mole is typically one uniform color, round or oval, and stays the same over time. Melanoma breaks those rules. Any mole that looks noticeably different from your other moles, sometimes called the “ugly duckling,” deserves attention even if it doesn’t check every box on the ABCDE list.
Nodular Melanoma: A Different Pattern
Not all melanomas spread outward across the skin first. Nodular melanoma grows downward into the skin from the start, which makes it more aggressive and harder to catch with the standard ABCDE criteria. Instead, dermatologists use a simpler set of warning signs called EFG: elevated above the skin surface, firm to the touch, and growing over weeks or months.
Nodular melanomas are often dome-shaped with a smooth surface rather than a scaly one. They can be black, blue-black, red, pink, brown, or even skin-colored, which means they don’t always look like what most people picture when they think of melanoma. A firm, raised bump that appeared recently and keeps getting bigger is the pattern to watch for, regardless of its color.
How Skin Cancer Looks on Darker Skin
Most skin cancer images online show lesions on lighter skin, which creates a real blind spot. On darker skin tones, skin cancer is more likely to appear in places that don’t get much sun at all: the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and under fingernails or toenails.
Acral lentiginous melanoma is the type most commonly found in these areas. It typically appears as an unevenly pigmented black or brown spot on a palm or sole that looks different from the surrounding skin and grows over time. When it develops under a nail, it shows up as a dark streak or band of pigment growing from the cuticle toward the tip of the nail. Streaks wider than 3 millimeters, with irregular pigmentation or blurred borders, are more concerning. The standard ABCDE checklist doesn’t apply well here. A more useful set of warning signs for these locations is CUBED: colored lesion, uncertain diagnosis, bleeding, enlargement, and delay in healing.
One of the biggest problems with skin cancer on darker skin is delayed diagnosis. Patients frequently mistake these spots for bruises, blood blisters, or warts. By the time they seek care, the cancer may have already progressed. Any dark spot on your palms, soles, or nails that doesn’t heal, bleeds, or keeps growing is worth showing to a dermatologist, even if it doesn’t hurt.
Precancerous Spots: Actinic Keratosis
Actinic keratoses aren’t cancer yet, but a small percentage of them can progress to squamous cell carcinoma if left alone. They appear as rough, dry, scaly patches usually less than 2.5 centimeters across. Colors range from pink to red to brown. Some develop a hard, wartlike surface. You’ll often feel them before you see them. Running your fingers over the skin, they feel like sandpaper or a rough patch that won’t smooth out with lotion.
These spots show up most often on the face, scalp (especially in people with thinning hair), ears, forearms, and the backs of the hands. Having one or two is common after years of sun exposure. Having many is a sign of significant cumulative skin damage and a higher overall risk for skin cancer.
Harmless Growths That Mimic Cancer
Not every new or unusual skin growth is cancer, and one of the most common look-alikes is seborrheic keratosis. These are benign growths that appear as slightly raised, discolored patches with a waxy or “stuck-on” look, as if someone pasted a blob of wax onto the skin. They can be tan, brown, or nearly black, which sometimes causes alarm because they superficially resemble melanoma.
The differences are subtle but real. Seborrheic keratoses tend to be flat, waxy, and painless with a clearly defined edge that looks pasted on. Melanomas have irregular borders, uneven color within the same spot, and change over time. If you aren’t sure which category a growth falls into, the safest move is to have it examined. Dermatologists can often distinguish the two on sight, and when there’s any doubt, a biopsy takes only minutes.
Where to Look and What to Track
Skin cancer can develop anywhere on the body, not just sun-exposed areas. Check your scalp (use a mirror or ask someone to look), between your toes, on the soles of your feet, and on your palms. Look at your nails for new dark streaks. Check your back, the backs of your legs, and behind your ears.
The most useful habit is consistency. When you know what your skin looks like now, you’ll notice when something changes. Monthly self-checks don’t need to be elaborate. Stand in front of a full-length mirror, use a hand mirror for your back, and look for anything new, anything that’s changed shape or color, or any sore that isn’t healing. Take photos of spots you’re unsure about so you can compare them a month later. Growth or change over time is one of the single most reliable warning signs across every type of skin cancer.