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Clinical practice with the homeless comes up against a phenomenon that is particular to such subjects: their lack of self-care. In spite of the material resources offered to such individuals in order to provide for their hygiene, we observe a “letting go” in terms of personal care, and this to an extremely serious degree. Very quickly, the vagrant surrounds himself with odors and bodily substances. This is a “cloacal coat” which covers the body, and impacts upon relations with others. By bringing together psychiatric, psychodynamic, and anthropological data, the author proposes to understand this “second skin” as a defense that serves to mitigate the puncturing of the subject’s psychic envelope, providing the contours of a subjective territory, but also restoring a form of communication.