Molluscum contagiosum (water warts)

Small, smooth, translucent nodules on the skin — each with a tiny dimple in the centre, as if someone had pressed a finger into it. Beneath the surface sits a whitish, doughy mass. Medically, these are water warts, caused by a virus transmitted through skin contact. They are harmless, often disappear on their own — and yet they show something.

The dermatological perspective explains the how: a poxvirus that infects the upper skin layer and produces small, dome-shaped formations there. The question BodySignal asks goes deeper: Why is your system receptive to this virus right now? What has created the fertile ground? And what does this symptom show you — on your skin, the boundary between inside and outside — about the way you present yourself to the world?

Water warts are not dramatic. They don't hurt. But they are visible. And that is precisely their message.