Warts

There is something on your skin that doesn't belong there. A small elevation, rough, stubborn, sometimes almost unnoticed — and yet it bothers you. You keep touching it. You want to get rid of it. You may even feel ashamed of it, hide the affected spot, hoping no one will see it.

Medicine explains warts as viral skin growths — human papillomaviruses penetrate the outermost layers of skin and trigger uncontrolled cell growth. Treatment involves cryotherapy, acid, laser. Sometimes they disappear on their own. Sometimes they come back, more stubborn than before. The question BodySignal asks goes deeper: Why does your system allow something to grow that you perceive as ugly? What is expressing itself here — on your surface, visible to the world — that you would rather keep hidden?

Warts are not an adornment, but a piece of self-evaluation breaking through the skin.