Question: How many layers of flesh do we have?

Simon Spichak answered on 27 Apr 2020:

Hi Peter, our body is very cool and divided into many layers. Now when we talk about ‘flesh’, we want to know about everything under our skin. But our skin actually has three different layers! At the top we have the epidermis – kind of like a waterproof wrapper for our body. The next layer of skin is called the dermis and has our hair follicles and sweat glands. This layer is much tougher and harder to pierce – it’s got lots of stuff called ‘connective tissue’. Finally, underneath that – our deepest layer of skin is called the ‘subcutaneous tissue’. This layer has lots of fat padding and connective tissue. Now our fat cells are very important – we actually have a few different kinds of them! We have white adipose tissue or white fat, which stores and quite simply, it’s filled with fat. The more interesting type of fat tissue is called the brown adipose tissue. It’s filled with these tiny little ‘engines’ called mitochondria (which give it the brown color), and they allow your body to stay warm when you’re cold! Now the subcutaneous tissue is probably what we think about when we imagine the layers of flesh – but we can zoom in on different organs and see that quite a few of them are wrapped in layers as well. For example, the brain is surrounded by the meningeal membrane! I hope that answers your question Peter!