I think that 皮 is not used for human skin (animals, fruit, etc.), but the Wanikani description and mnemonic both refer to “your skin” several times. This had me thinking that I could use it for my skin… Which made my teacher laugh.
Should this be clarified in the description (“don’t use for human skin?”)
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It is both actually
Here are a couple example sentences where it refers to a human’s skin specifically:
Beauty is skin deep
Sunburnt skin
Skin and bones
It’s a bit like how we have the words “hide” and “skin” in English. One is more natural in some contexts while the other works better in others. 皮 gets a bit closer to “hide” in a lot of cases, but in English we also refer to our own skin as a hide every now and again. (Save your hide etc)
So both are kind of right. Though generally our own skin on its own, a human skin, would be 肌. The usage between skin/hide and the close equivalents in Japanese with 肌/皮 doesn’t translate equally 1:1 though. Especially when accounting for kanji usage in larger words.
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Thanks! … maybe worth a bit of clarification in the description? Is it correct that using 皮 for human skin sounds strange in most routine contexts?
I’ll bring this up to the team to see if we want to add a clarification to this word!
-Nick at WK
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From Mami:
"The user is right that 皮 refers to skin, but it’s mostly used for non-human examples like fruit, vegetables, or animals. However, there are specific cases where it does apply to human skin, especially when talking about skin peeling off (e.g., 皮がむける, “the skin is peeling off”). I think even for animal skins, 皮 is used when the skin is removed from the body, though. If we want to talk about skin attached to the body, we say 肌 or 皮膚, regardless if it’s human or animal.
In the kanji mnemonics, 皮 is used to describe the skin being peeled (coming off) due to the roughness of the branches. This aligns with one of the specific contexts where 皮 is appropriate for referring to human skin."
We are taking a look into how to address the nuances! 
-Nick at WK
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How about,
皮 is mostly used for non-human skin like fruits or animals. In some specific cases, it can apply to human skin, such as 皮がむける, “the skin is peeling off."
I think that all you need is a brief note like this that would keep a user from using this like the English usage, for skin in general. That would be super helpful!
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I’ll pass this along!
-Nick at WK