Symptoms:

• Skin markings that look like blood vessels
• Skin rash or lesion that is red

The different types of birthmark have their own appearance and typical location:

• Cavernous hemangiomas may appear as a red-blue spongy mass of tissue filled with blood.
• Port-wine stains are most often located on the face. The size varies from very small to over half of the body surface.
• Salmon patches are small, pink, flat spots. They are small blood vessels (capillaries) that are visible through the skin. They are most common on the forehead, eyelids, upper lip, between the eyebrows, and on the back of the neck. Salmon patches may be more noticeable when the infant cries or during temperature changes.
• Strawberry hemangiomas may appear anywhere on the body, but are most common on the neck and face. They consist of small, closely packed blood vessels.

Signs and tests:

A health care provider should examine all birthmarks. Diagnosis is based primarily on the appearance of the skin lesion.

Tests to confirm deeper birthmarks include:

• Biopsy
• CT scan
• MRI of the area