The only thing I think of is that I can just isolate the mesh and pack it on the whole island.
That’s a plan, move forward with it. Try it out. You can also have different texture image files for different parts of the character, maybe because you want more resolution and you don’t mind the extra memory. Execute plans and if you make mistakes, that’s ok. That’s how you start learning what approach works and what doesn’t and it’ll be easier to make the right decisions earlier on.