When you think of your skin, you don't usually think of it as being an organ.
In referring to organs in our body, we think of our kidneys, liver or our heart.
But our skin is an organ, it's actually the largest organ in our body.
Working together, the cells and tissues in your skin create a boundary between you and the environment.
The skin, unlike the other organs in your body, has to be out in the real world.
That's why it has many sensors, and tough layers to help protect it from the realities of the environment.
Your skin is made up of two layers, the dermis and the epidermis.
The epidermis is the outer layer, as the dermis is the inner most layer.
The epidermis, being on the outside, acts like the barrier to form the protection, while the dermis, being on the inside holds all the equipment, like your hair follicles, nerve endings, and sweat glands.
Specific vessels branch into the dermis of the skin to supply blood to the glands, hair follicles, and erector muscles.
These vessels will also fan out into the inner layer's capillary bed.
Skin needs these capillaries (which they are loaded with) to give nutrition to the cells, and they also help the skin to be able to cool itself down.
There is no direct blood supply in the epidermis, so it needs to get support from the dermis.
All the equipment in the dermis; sweat glands, hair follicles, nerve endings, each have their own small little muscle which would enable your hair to stand on end.
These nerve endings allow you to sense the world and help to protect you from it, allowing you to feel burns, itching, hot, cold, pain and pressure.
The outer layer of your skin (epidermis) actually has two layers, an inner and outer layer.
The inner layer is living, while the outer layer is dead.
We can actually see the dead skin cells that flake off in order to allow the new ones to come to the surface, to help you have younger skin.
The inner layer of the epidermis (malpighian) is what creates the dead cells that we are able to see.
It's fed and supported by being in direct contact with the dermis.
This is important to focus on this layer because this is where the sun can have damaging effects on the skin.