Question about "Skin"

[reyrey389]

Why is it that the skin doesn't bleed when we scratch it?

Is it because no blood vessels are present?...

[JackBean]

depends how much will you scratch it. If you scratch it only on the top, without damaging it, it won't bleed of course. Otherwise you would loose blood all the time in nature and predators could easily hunt you. But when you scratch it deeply, then it will bleed.
Look on picture of cross-section of skin, that could help you to find answer (how old are particular cells and whether are they viable).

[daniel.kurz]

Skin is a multi-layered "organ" that makes up the covering of our body. When we scratch our skin we are really just touching the epidermis of our skin, which is the outer most skin layer. We slough off some cells as well as bacteria and fungi that are hanging out on our skin. If we scratch hard enough or scrape of against something we can get an abrasion or a laceration where the scratch goes down to the dermis and hyperdermis where we have capillaries that may be ruptured and release blood.