A scab on my cats mouth?

Hello, I am a CRAZY cat lover so whenever I notice something that is wrong, I immediately start to figure what it is and how to deal with it. This morning, I noticed that my almost 2 year old cat had this strange dark reddish brown thing sticking out from his left jaw right underneath his lips. I thought it was a little piece of food stuck to his mouth so I just pulled it off. It didn't resist at all when I took it off but some hair came with it and was stuck to this unknown thing. after I puled it off he started to bleed! I am freaking out by now, so I got a cloth and started to dab it, trying to stop the bleeding. I think that tiny thing was a tick. My cat is an indoor cat but just yesterday he escaped outside for about 2 minutes because the wind blew the front door open. Then I thought it could be kitty acne? I haven't washed his plastic water bowl in a while so could that be it? I am so confused right now and I would like to try and fix it before I take him to the vet. Any advice is appreciated!   

Hello and welcome! Can you post a photo of his lip? If it is acne, using stainless steel bowls and washing them every day will help.

Also, is your cat fixed? If not, he's going to try to escape much more often!

Hello! I realize that this post is from 2016, but my cats seem to be having the same problem! They both use stainless steel bowls which I clean every day. They are inside cats only, and have both been spayed/neutered. It's been about 5-6 weeks and I thought it was getting better but it's back again! What happened with your kitty? Or what did you do/change that helped it go away?