# Possible to wear skin inside out? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874 "2012-01-27T16:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/1 "2012-01-27T16:53:00Z")
Assuming a state of the art operating theater and a top notch medical team, would it be possible to take off a persons skin and then put it back on inside out? Would the skin still work if it was worn like that, or would this always result in death? Is it possible to make outside of the skin stick to the person and grow again with some sort of sub-dermal injection? How freaky would the person look after the procedure, what does the underneath of skin actually look like? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/2 "2012-01-27T16:59:40Z")
If you just did this with a finger - remove the skin, turn it inside out and slip it back on, the skin would die, then slough off, then the flesh underneath would either form a layer of scar tissue, or become infected and eventually necrotic, and in the best case, drop off (in the worst, more likely case, the infection would just spread up the arm and hello septicemia). For the whole body? Not a chance. It would be equivalent to 100% third degree burn - the patient would die of dehydration, shock or infection or some combination of the above, in a fairly short space of time. It would look freaky though, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/3 "2012-01-27T17:07:44Z")
I don’t think it’s going to matter, but you might want to start out by defining what you mean by [skin.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HumanSkinDiagram.jpg) Think about what it would mean to sweat if all the layers were inverted. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/4 "2012-01-27T19:09:00Z")
Need answer quick? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/5 "2012-01-27T19:18:00Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Need answer quick? Yes, they’ve already started the work. ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/6 "2012-01-27T20:48:04Z")
Lets assume that the doctors sanitize the outside of the skin before reattaching it, so infection should not be an issue. As far as the type of skin - whatever peels off as you pull on it after the incisions are made. I don’t need the answer fast, I’m up to my neck it test subjects here. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/7 "2012-01-27T21:04:51Z")
Skin is a very complicated organ. The bottom and middle layers need a blood supply, and the top layer is dead, tough, and practically impervious to liquids. Simply put, the formally-inner layers would die rapidly, just like if you left it on a table somewhere. The, er, “patient” might be slightly protected by the inside-out skin, and at least wouldn’t dehydrate or go into shock as rapidly as someone with no skin at all. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/8 "2012-01-27T21:14:37Z")
“Skin” isn’t just one kind of cells through and through. There are distinct layers with different kinds of cells that do different jobs. Way down deep are layers of “locking” cells which hold your skin on - no way to reproduce that with the top layers of skin, which are dead flattened cells. No, this wouldn’t work, even if you could sanitize the skin and keep the patient in a sterile environment for the rest of their life afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/9 "2012-01-27T21:16:04Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Skin is a very complicated organ. It’s the stuff that keeps you in. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/10 "2012-01-27T21:29:47Z")
Obligatory [Inside-out Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjJq2ECzgE) ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/11 "2012-01-27T21:39:17Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It’s the stuff that keeps you in. 😃 And keeps stuff out, and holds your immune system’s first line of defense, and cools you down, or keeps you warm, and… ---
**Author:** ![toodlepip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/12 "2012-01-27T22:57:16Z")
Skin isn’t like a layer of plastic food wrap that peels off. It is living tissue with a blood supply from the tissue beneath. Skin grafts and transposed skin flaps will fail if they don’t have an adequate blood supply. There would be no way of creating a blood supply to “inside out” skin, and it would have no protective layer, so the skin would necrose and slough off. This would apply if you removed the full thickness of the skin. However, making a few cuts and pulling it off just wouldn’t work with human skin. There is no clean plane of dissection underneath human skin like there is in most other animals. In other words, you would be cutting if from the underlying connective tissue all the way, much more difficult than skinning most animals (pig skin is more similar to human skin, so the same applies to them). The question might make more sense (I’m really stretching the concept of “sense” here) if you were thinking of the outer layer of skin, the epidermis, which has no blood supply. It gets its nutrients by diffusion from the deeper layers of the skin. At its thickest it is 1.5 mm, and 0.1 mm at its thinnest, so good luck getting that off in a clean piece. The epidermal cells are produced at the innermost cell layer and shed from the surface layer. The cells are constantly moving outwards, and the whole layer renews itself every seven weeks or so. Turning it inside out therefore presents a couple of obvious problems, but it would probably work moderately well as a protective layer for a short time. ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/13 "2012-01-27T23:54:20Z")
During medical school I saw a burn patient who had extensive skin grafting and one of the patches of graft had accidentally been applied upside-down. The rest of the grafting appeared to be healing ok but in that area the graft tissue was just dead and dried out. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/14 "2012-01-28T09:17:03Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It’s the stuff that keeps you in. 😃 [Skin](http://www.lyrics007.com/Sherman%20Allan%20Lyrics/Skin%20Lyrics.html) by Allan Sherman: (Sung to the tune of “You Gotta Have Heart”) You gotta have skin. All you really need is skin. Skin’s the thing that if you got it outside, It helps keep your insides in. It covers your nose, And it’s wrapped around your toes. And inside it you put lemon meringue, And outside ya hang your clothes. . . . [Hiawatha’s Hunting](http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/09/modern-hiawatha-george-strong.html), attributed to George Strong: He killed the noble Mudjokivis. Of the skin he made him mittens, Made them with the fur side inside, Made them with the skin side outside. He, to get the warm side inside, Put the inside skin side outside. He, to get the cold side outside, Put the warm side fur side inside. That’s why he put the fur side inside, Why he put the skin side outside, Why he turned them inside outside. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/15 "2012-01-28T21:31:32Z")
You could probably wear \*someone else’s \*skin inside out. Would that be an option for you? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/16 "2012-01-28T22:36:58Z")
You have to be sure to put the lotion on, so you don’t get the hose again! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/17 "2012-01-29T03:35:23Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Skin is a very complicated organ. It’s also the largest organ in the body. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-to-wear-skin-inside-out/610874/18 "2012-01-29T03:38:37Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > It’s also the largest organ in the body. Speak for yourself. 😉