Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus, which accelerates growth of cells on your skin's outer layer. Warts can grow on any part of your body, from head to feet, including your fingers. You likely think of grainy, flesh-colored bumps when someone mentions warts. However, warts also can come in a variety of colors and may be flat, according to the Mayo Clinic. Common and flat warts can both appear on your fingers and hands.
Identification
Flat warts usually are the size of a pinhead. They're often pink, yellow or light brown. Flat warts are so named because they have flat tops. You're most likely to get flat warts on your face. However, these also can grow on your hands, arms or knees, according to the Nemours Foundation. Flat warts sometimes come in clusters. Often, it's difficult for parents to recognize flat warts in children, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Susceptibility
Warts--including the flat variety--are more common in kids than in adults, according to the Nemours Foundation. If you are a young adult or if you have a compromised immune system due to factors such as an organ transplant or HIV/AIDs, you're also more likely to have warts after being exposed to the HPV virus, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Location
While warts can affect any area on your body, they most often show up in warm, moist places. On the fingers this might be a scratch or small cut, according to the Nemours Foundation. Warts by and large don't cause pain--unless you've got one on a spot that gets touched or bumped often, such as your fingers or the soles of your feet.
Considerations
You can pick up HPV and subsequently develop warts, after touching something another person with a wart uses. You may expose your hands to HPV by touching a towel or counter, for example. If you pick at hangnails or bite your fingernails, you might get warts more often than people who don't. Nail biting exposes areas of skin that are less protected, creating open areas that the virus can easily enter, according to the Nemours Foundation. Warts that show up around or underneath your nails more difficult to treat than warts that show up other places, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Solution
Your wart likely does not need medical treatment and is likely to go away on its own, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, you may choose to treat a wart on your fingers that is bothersome or spreading to other areas. All types of warts can spread from your fingers to other body parts, according to UMMC. At home, try one of the salicylic acid medications or patches are available from drug stores. Try covering a wart with duct tape for six days, soaking the wart in warm water and rubbing it with a pumice stone, according to the Mayo Clinic. If you choose to see a doctor, he might use liquid nitrogen to freeze it, use an extract from blister beetles called cantharidin, or perform minor surgery to cut away your wart tissue.
