It’s the heart of winter here, so I wanted to think about mermaids for a while. Mermaids basking on warm rocks, mermaids swimming through phosphorescence-bright night waters, mermaids lounging around with their pet manatees.
Turns out I’m not the only one with mermaids on the mind. Mermaids: they’re a THING. The natural range of mermaid subculture is the East Coast of the United States, swimming between the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and the Weeki Wachee mermaid sanctuary in Florida. It seems to be like burlesque with a dash of piracy, New Age fairy dust, and really fun tails.
Photo by Sameb, used courtesy of NCND 2.0 Creative Commons.
Along with their swimming abilities and ocean conservation interests, mermaids have a regrettable fondness for Flash web site introductions. So please be patient with some of these sites.
I Am A Mermaid has the best articles and interviews, and the author describes her experience at Mermaid Camp at Weeki Wachee.
Mermaid makeovers in California with Mermaid Shelley.
You’d be convinced you were a merperson, too, after putting on a custom-made hand-painted silicone tail from The Mertailor. These are just jaw-droppingly amazing.
We seem to be strangely short on mermaids in New Zealand waters. Weta Digital is trying to fix that with their own mermaid tail project.
It’s not all sweetness and light amongst the merfolk. Freaky mermaid anatomy (take that, Ariel), the history of the bizarre “Feejee mermaid” sideshow construct, and an artist doing a new take on Feejee mermaids.