Barnhill

 
"Gross morphologic features of melanoma includes size often greater than 1 cm (range 2 mm to greater than 15 mm); irregular or notched borders; asymmetry; complexity of color including a variable admixture of tan, brown, blue, black, red, pink, gray, and white; and ulceration and bleeding. Early melanomas especially those involving sun-exposed and acral sites may be completely flat but with progression usually develop a papular or nodular component."
 
Barnhill RL. Textbook of Dermatopathology. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1998:573.
 

Brief critique

 
What Barnhill states in these lines is mere variation on the theme of the ABCDs, albeit in a different order, employing a range of 2 mm to greater than 15 mm, and adding to them ulceration and bleeding. The latter are not signs of "early melanoma," but are indicative of likelihood of metastasis having already occurred. It also is not true that only "early melanomas especially those involving some exposed and acral sites may be completely flat;" as a general rule, all melanomas on all anatomic sites begin flat, that is, as a macule.