I have been doing minor surgical procedures all my 31 years of being a surgeon but the last 4 years that’s ALL I’ve done here at QuikSurg. As you could imagine, I have heard some amazing stories of things like, “I decided to just wash that cut off and slap some super glue on it… and it worked” or ” that little thing was bothering me so I grabbed it and just jerked it off my arm”. The technical name for doing things like that is DYI and sometimes they work, you are successful, the thing you plucked off or the cut you closed with super glue didn’t have a problem.

I decided it would be best if you are bound and determined to “try this at home” that I, at least, could give a few pointers along the way. I am not a fan of superglue for cuts for 3 main reasons. You would not want to glue a wound closed that had bacteria in it so any wound requires a thorough cleaning/rinsing before repair. Superglue is not a medical glue and can cause a reactive dermatitis in some patients. And lastly, glue is not the best thing to use in areas of high skin tension or in areas that stretch or move such as over joints.
Are stitches needed? The answer to that is no, a wound will heal without stitches but won’t be as cosmetically appealing. Stitches, glue, steri-strips all allow for the wound to heal with the best cosmetic results. All 3 wound closures have their advantages and disadvantages but if you are going the DYI route, you are probably not that concerned about how it looks.
As far as “skin things that you can pull off”, I think most of those would be skin tags and while they sure look like you can just pull them off easily, they are (as you probably already know by now) attached to you and they are not just skin. They come complete with nerves, and blood vessels. Hence, be ready for some pain and bleeding if you still feel the need to rip them off. Not saying you can’t do it, just be ready for the consequences!
I am all about DYI but sometimes it’s worth the (short) time and money to let a professional sewer-upper and skin-tag-getter use the tools of the trade.