skin around birthmarks

Dr. Rockoff,
    a few weeks ago I noticed that the skin around a couple birthmarks I've always had, dark brown in color, became reddened.  One birth mark is fairly large, approximately half an inch in diameter, just above my pubic hair and centered.  The other fairly close, much smaller, above the other and to the right where my stomach begins.  At the same time a small bump appeared just below the large mark.  The bumb was raised about two millimeters, soft and red.  A few weeks later, being last night, the large birthmark still has reddened skin around it, but no other birthmarks do, and the bump had grown from a pinpoint to an approximate centimeter diameter, with height about the same.  Still soft, but more purplish in color, and what I assumed was pustular in nature, due to the off-white coloring that seemed to be pushing it's way out.  Perhaps foolishly, no, it was foolish, I decided to try and pop-it, thinking it to be an ingrown hair, which I tend to get a lot of.  Well, lo and behold, as I began to apply pressure between my fingers, it bled profusely, with fairly dark blood.  For some reason, this didn't stop me, and i continued my methodical squeezing.  I ended up tearing it off, basically, and boy, did it ever bleed.  It left a pit two millimeters deep, and being the curious cat I am, I looked at the growth I just pulled off of myself.  An off-white, being yellowish but not yellow, mass was inside, perhaps fatty tissue?  It also had jagged lines forming from the circular outside to join in the center.  So my question is, what do you think it might have been, is it related to the birthmarks, and should I worry about it?  My thanks, in advance.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

It sounds like you extracted a cyst, which perhaps had become inflamed.  The reddening around the birthmarks must be from irritation.  Has a doctor ever looked at or commented about them?

Picking at things is not useful, though most of the time people get away with it.  My advice is to wrap what you removed in a piece of plastic wrap (unless you have formaldehde in the house) and show it and the birthmarks to a doctor.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff