Finding an unusual mole can be scary, especially if you don't know the difference between 'normal' and 'abnormal'. I had one a few years ago on my back, and it turned out to be normal but it freaked me out a bit.

Here's a handy visual guide from Fitsugar on how to tell what's normal and what's not when it comes to moles. In a nutshell, look for:

• Uneven colouring
• Asymmetric shape
• Jagged (as opposed to smooth) border
• Diameter -- it should be no larger than a pencil eraser

If your mole has one of the following characteristics, don't panic. It could be nothing but the point is, you never know. Just see your doctor.

As Skin Cancer Awareness Month winds down, I find myself hoping you have learned a thing or two about a disease that is far more common than we tend to believe, a diseases that in some cases is downright deadly.

The month of May will soon drift away. Skin cancer will not -- unless of course we make huge, swift strides in prevention. Until this happens, though, the best we can do is be vigilant about early detection. I have an idea. Well, an idea I'm borrowing from The Archives of Dermatology.

The idea: photography. Studies show patients who use photographs of their own skin for reference are better able to detect skin changes while conducting self-examinations.

If you find a new lump or spot on your skin, a sore that doesn't heal,or a change in a mole's appearance, it could be a sign of skin cancer.

• Basal cell skin cancer can look like a smooth, shiny, pale or waxy lump. It can be a lump that bleeds or develops a crust. Though this form of skin cancer rarely spreads to other parts of the body it can destroy nearby tissues.
• Squamous cell skin cancer can also look like a smooth, shiny, pale or waxy lump like basal cell. This form of skin cancer also rarely spreads to other parts of the body but it too can destroy nearby tissues.
• Melanoma skin cancer is the deadliest form and needs to be caught early. What to look for is asymmetry -- if one half of the mole looks different than the other half. If it has odd shaped borders and the color is not uniform throughout. Take a look at those moles and if you have any concerns seek out a dermatologist.

In the not-too-distant future, dermatologists will be able to diagnose skin cancer without ever cutting the skin.

Right now, doctors cut out all suspicious lesions in order to examine them, to determine if they are cancerous or not. But with the development of a new microscope, cells can be examined right on the body -- without cutting.

Moles matter, reported Matt Lauer on Thursday's TODAY show during an interview with a skin cancer expert. Moles are highly associated with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. So it is critical that each mole is investigated. With this new high resolution technology -- essentially a video biopsy -- a camera will allow doctors to view cells, zero in on the area of concern, and pinpoint the exact cells that make up a mole. If the cells are similar in shape and size and have equal distribution, the mole is normal. If the individual cells are irregular and have no uniform pattern, the mole is abnormal and probably cancerous.

While cutting for biopsy purposes will one day be a thing of the past, cutting will still be necessary if a mole is characterized by cancerous cells. If it's cancer, it must come out. But the video biopsy can be used to map the border and boundaries and will allow for precise removal of the mole.

This technology is still developing -- but one day, perhaps eight to 10 years from now -- doctors will be able to more consistently detect cancer without removal of skin. For now, they must take a piece of the mole and put it under a microscope.

There are definite warning signs of skin cancer. Any mole that is asymmetrical with irregular borders and varied, dark colors should be reported to a physician. Also, any mole that changes in color, shape, or size and is bigger than a pencil eraser is cause for concern.

We can have teeny tiny self-contained cancers throughout our body and not know it. We can have cancer that the body has effectively stopped. Small undetected tumors that start as cancer but never develop on or spread. This is not written to cause alarm, only to illuminate that cancer might be happening much more often than anyone normally suspects, and in many cases, the body is capable of protecting us from tumor growth and spread.

Skin moles may hold clues to treating cancer, is an excellent must-read article for anyone interested in understanding of how prevalent and self-contained cancer might be for many of us.

For example, moles are cancerous tumors that start but somehow stop, never to become anything other than a mole. As Gina Kolata explains in her article, "Each mole is a tumor of pigment cells that started on a path to cancer and then stopped. The cells do not divide again. A mole is an incipient cancer that halted in its tracks."

The intriguing phenomenon of moles and other small tumors in the body that never go on to amount to anything threatening are being studied by scientists because it appears these little tumors that start as cancer and stop have not received much attention in the past. Dr. David Fisher, the director of the melanoma program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, states, "I would bet my last penny that our bodies are riddled with these things."

It gives the reader pause to consider how marvelous the body is at normally taking care of itself that if moles and little tumors are cancers contained. Understanding the mechanisms behind how a body makes that happen could open a wider door into effective cancer treatments and cure. Please read Skin moles may hold clues to treating cancer for more detail.

The perfect tan. Hours of each day devoted to the sun. Visits to tanning salons on cloudy days. For many sun worshippers, a golden tan is the currency of beauty. Currently Miss Tidewater, aspiring to win the coveted title of Miss Maryland, Brittany Lietz is a young woman who once aspired to having the perfect tan in the belief it would win her more beauty pageants. At only 20 years of age, her perfect tan turned into a diagnosis of skin cancer.

Lietz has been using her celebrity position as a beauty pageant winner as a platform for raising awareness of the dangers associated with too much sun exposure. She is speaking to high school students at their schools and manning booths at health fairs to warn others her age that the cost of a golden glow is too high a price to pay when you put yourself in harm's way. She has a white scar running across the back of her right rib cage, and she has had 20 other moles removed since she was first diagnosed with melanoma. These days, she uses self-tanning sprays to achieve the look of a tan because a tan is still an asset when you compete in beauty pageants. A pump-spray tan is as close as she wants to be to the sun.

"To me, being tan is not worth losing my life over," she said. "I'm going to be pale and that's who I am."

In the majority of skin cancer cases, skin cancer develops on a part of the body most exposed to the sun. However, that is not always the case, and dermatologists suggest a regular self examination of your entire body skin surface.

To begin a self examination you will need a full-length mirror; a handheld mirror; and a private well-lit room. The full-length mirror allows you to exam the skin areas easily viewed and the handheld mirror gives you the chance to see skin areas not as easily seen, such as the back, scalp, underarms, genitalia, palms, soles, and areas between the toes and fingers. When you visit the Skin Care Physicians skin cancer self examination webpage, you will find an illustrated step-by-step guide, complete with body positions, to carry out a successful self examination.

The obvious danger signs of skin cancer are changes in the size, color, shape, or texture of birthmarks, blemishes, or moles. More specific, signs that should catch your attention are a sore that never fully heals; a translucent growth with rolled edges; brown or black streak underneath a nail; cluster of slow-growing, shiny pink or red lesions; a waxy-feeling scar; flat or slightly depressed lesion that feels hard to the touch or moles that bleed or itch. Photographs of suspicious looking skin growths and moles are also published on the skin cancer self examination webpage. To me, cancerous moles and lesions look nasty and seem easy to identify.

A final note from the experts, and another reason to perform regular self examinations -- if detected early, skin cancer is highly curable -- and the earlier skin cancer is diagnosed, the less scarring from surgical procedures when removing a cancerous growth.