Meet Mermaid Shelly!

Crankit

is it normally only women who put on the tails and stuff, or do men do it too?

Also is it like a sexual thing, I don't really understand why there's so many people who dress as mermaids.

Mermaid Shelly

It is definitely 90% women, but there are plenty of mermen there too. Not a sexual thing at all, just a celebration of the mer-lifestyle.

But I think the voyeurs out there are not entirely just in it because they love the ocean. I'm sure there were some "merverts" out there too... fetish guys into drowning & stuff. There are worlds within worlds; the deeper I go, the more I find out!

A lot of folks see it as an escape fantasy... what better way than to swim away from "normal" life entirely? And many others just see it as a realization of childhood dreams from mermaid movies, cartoons, etc. Plus, it is really, really fun! With a big ol' monofin powering you, you can swim like a fish (literally). It is what freedivers use to go to great depths, so swimming in a tail with one is an amazing experience.

I'm also a conservational biologist, and its a way to connect with the ecosystem and draw attention to environmental issues. No one wants to read a boring blog rant on the environment and feel talked-down to, but if they read about a mermaid saying 'please protect our home and save our friends,' people tend to be more sympathetic... or at least think twice before throwing trash on the beach. Many mermaids are involved with environmental causes, so it sort of all goes together on some weird level... at least in my mind it does.

pizza cat

What kinds of tops do you have/like to wear with your tails? It looks like you make tops as well, but are they usually of the same latex-y material or more like a traditional bikini top? As a girl, the thought of swimming in the shell top seems... problematic and uncomfortable

Mermaid Shelly

I started making my own tops since I am a little too gifted for shell tops. They are sharp and painful and the neckties dig right into your neck, so I avoid them like the plague unless I have to for a mod challenge! I bought a pair of scale "cups" once and it was even worse, like pasties I was supposed to glue on. Yeah right, maybe on a 10-year old! It was horrible... I am still traumatized by the idea of ripping that glue off.

I make mine out of the same neoprene material that I make the tails out of. Then it is more of a custom fit that I can shape however I want and is a lot more flattering and comfortable than wearing those horrible boob-smashing shells. Otherwise I wear regular bikini tops, but I do like to match

MerMatt

Hi everybody, I'm Shelly's friend Matt from mer-community and I thought it would be fun to join in and maybe give some of the male perspective of this whole 'mermaiding' deal. As the thing that's possibly even stranger to the populace at large than a mermaid (who have the advantage of being quite attractive, which goes a long way with a lot of folk in terms of rationalizing things), it's kind of an interesting position to be in. Here's my tail:


I'd primarily define it as a hobby, but one I think people get into for different reasons. For a lot of people I'd say it's a hobby with..........I don't know, some other sort of affinity element. You hear a good bit of "Well, I've been into mermaids ever since I was a little girl" or "I've always had this weird sort of connection to the sea", and now that 'realistic' tails (as differentiated from most fabric tails) are somewhat more common and affordable a community has formed around it.

On the other hand, I got into it the way I think a lot of the guys did, even if nobody seems to want to admit it: I realized at some point in my early teens that mermaids were really attractive! I'm still in it because I still am (even more so by now), and if that makes it a fetish, I guess I can live with that, but along the way I got interested in the costuming aspect of it and that was sort of the crowd I fell into with mer.yuku (where they developed the techniques that resulted in this small-scale tail 'boom' we're in).

Mermaid Shelly

I totally second what you are saying here... but it's more than a hobby, for me at least it is a lifestyle. And I think there are enough of us that it is being taken more seriously. I mean, we have a magazine now; how cool is that?

My house could literally be a mermaid museum, I seem to have mermaid everything. I am very lucky that my husband is as into it as I am or it could be a problem! He saw Splash! when he was a kid too and wanted to be Tom Hanks' character and meet a mermaid... so I guess we're a pretty good fit that way. I love that I have a man who is willing to support my lifestyle willingly, not begrudgingly. I think it is adorable that he got a personalized license plate frame that says, "Nobody knows my wife is a mermaid" and actually enjoys dragging my tails around and doing photoshoots. He is proud as hell, and I love that about him It would be too hard to hide it otherwise... and what sort of relationship would that be?

That is definitely another element that I love about the mercommunity. The LGBT community is well represented and embraced There's even a mermaid drag queen site now!