Sorry for the revolting question, but it was inspired by last nights channel four dissection of a real corpse (UK TV). The skin (about 1/4 inch thick) was peeled off in one piece as easy as pulling off a tracksuit. Does the corpse have to be prepared, pickled or aged in any way, or would I do that if freshly dead? Any doctors, morticians, post-mortem experts, or cannibals out there? Just morbidly curious
Taking up a new hobby? :dubious:
From my experience skinning mammals and birds as specimens, skin usually can be peeled off in one intact piece fairly easily. While I’ve never skinned anything as big as a human, I did help skin a sheep once. I don’t think skinning a fresh human corpse would present any particular technical problems, though the skin might be a little less tough than that of a furred mammal.
There is considerable species variation. Cats are a little easier than dogs owing to differences in connective tissue. Small birds can be difficult (IMHO) due to how thin the skin is. Ostriches often are skinned to fill demand for leather, and one trick is to place a trocar undrer the skin and hook it up to an air pump.
Never had any experience with a human corpse, and hope to keep it that way.
Hummingbirds are hard mainly because of the size. Some larger birds are more difficult. Trogons are notorious among ornithologists because they have very thin tissue-paper-like skin and very loosely attached feathers. I particularly hate skinning pigeons, because the skin is not only thin, it’s tightly attached to the underlying flesh. and the feathers are so loosely attached that after skinning a couple of pigeons it looks like a pillow fight has taken place.
I wonder if the corpse had been submerged in water for a day or so if that would make it easier to skin.
Skinning a cat that had been submerged in formaldehyde for some time was quite easy. (For anatomy class, I’m not some animal killing freak 
)
I doubt it. In my experience, the fresher a specimen is the easier it is to skin.
Day-old specimens are often considered to be not worth skinning because they have begun to undergo decomposition and the skin will “slip,” that is the hair or feathers will come out. Less of a concern with a relatively hairless human, I suppose, but it still wouldn’t make a specimen I would like to have in my collection.
Probably the worst problem in getting a human skin off in one piece for a study skin would be passing the head through the neck. This is a big problem with woodpeckers, for example – you usually have to make an incision in the neck, since the head is too big to evert through the neck. Of course, with large mammals you often just make a flat skin, so this wouldn’t be a problem if you decided to do that.
hehehe…Columbiformes in general are like that. However, when I did wildlife rehab pigeons were fantastic patients. They are difficult to kill, surviving many viral diseases that drop other birds fast. They are also docile and do not stress out much when handled. Pigeons also only had to satisfy the six foot rule. That is, after orthopedic repair of a wing fracture, a pigeon had to be able to fly 6 feet in order to be deemed releasable. Any other bird had to fly normally which is not a simple accomplishment. /off topic
if you skinned a live animal? (be it human or other types of animals)… and i don’t neccesarily mean the whole body… but like maybe just the arm (like Arnold in T2)… would the subject die? would new skin ever grow back?
I expect it would die of infection or fluid loss pretty quickly. Skinning removes the lower live layer of skin, the dermis, not just the epidermis, so skin would not be able to regenerate in the skinned area. In smaller areas, skin would be able to grow in from the edges of the wound. But if large areas of skin are removed, one would need to do skin grafts (as in the case of burn victims) for skin to regenerate.
Ah, but how many ways are there to do it?! 
-Butler (couldn’t resist)
In the program they cheated by cutting round the neck. I supposed what surprised me was the seeming lack of any connective tissue to the skin layer. It did appear to be an old wrinkly man - I wonder if a young person would have more connective stuff
Connective tissue is there. The sound made when peeling off skin (a distinctive ripping sound) is the sound of connective tissue being torn.
In skinning an animal the connective tissue appears as thin strands of material between the skin and underlying muscle as one pulls the skin away. Depending on species, and the area being skinned, the connective tissue strands can often be broken simply by pulling on the skin. However, in some places the connective tissue may be thick enough so that a scalpel is needed to free the skin.
I’m not sure how the amount of connective tissue between the skin and muscle changes in humans. However, in animals I have the impression that older animals would be harder to skin.
For an easy at home tutorial, go buy a whole chicken at the supermarket. Then go at it. There’s only a few spots where you need a knife to nick the connective tissue. Other that that, the whole shebang peels off pretty easily. While humans aren’t identical, of course, it can give you a good hands-on idea.
Now make some soup. Don’t waste all that good chicken!
I hear there’s more than one.
Not sure about species variation but based on my experince with small game, deer and cattle, I’d have to say size makes a big difference. The larger the animal, the larger the square footage of skin, and also the more connective tissue holding the skin on.
A squirrel or rabbit, easy to skin – one hand on the carcass one on the hide and pull, cut around the hard to skin bits (feet, head and tail).
A deer requires significantly more force – grab the skin by both hands and use your body weight to pull it away, some cutting the tissue away may be necessary.
A cow (1000 lb. steer) – one guy uses both hands to pull the hide while another uses a knife to sever the connecting tissue.
The things you learn growing up on a farm.
Note these are all fresh kill examples. I don’t know (or really want to know) what measures are taken with cadavers before they are ‘released’ for medical uses. Those measures might have had an impact on the process.
-rainy
I’ve videotaped human dissection for med school training tapes.
The reflection of the skin is painstaking in that the connective fascia is carefully severed so as not to damage underlying muscle tissue. In a pinch though I’m sure it could be done as quickly and efficiently as dressing a carcass in the field.
I was going to post the exact same thing but I was also going to add that skinning a catfish usually requires pliers or gloves in order to keep a grip on the skin.
Here’s one way to skin a deer. Hanging the deer head up, cut around the neck. Peel back enough skin at the back where you’ve made the cut to insert a rock about the size of a golf ball into a pouch you form in the skin. Tie a rope around the rock. Attach the other end of the rope to your handy tractor. slowly back away, and the skin comes off in a single piece, without a lot of struggle. I’ve done this with pigs as well, but never a cow.