Mermaid Magic
Coming soon to the Bubblie…..
Back in 2012, I started my childhood dream of becoming a mermaid. I always loved mermaids since “the little mermaid” and “splash”. I somehow dived into the DIY part of youtube being as I was a part of youtube in it’s inffancy back in 2007. Thats were I came across Making and sewing mermaid tails. And from there a passion and happy place was born.
Now in the beginning there was not many merpeople, if you will, in my town let alone in general. Being as I was A young adult, who now could live out all the things I had wanted to experience but was “too young” or under funded. I remember finally figureing out a way to test out my new mermaid tail creation. I had worked at a YMCA and they had a pool. Luckily at that time, its wasn’t too mainstream to have mermaid tails and the desire to swim at a local pool. I had learned quickly that my first tail was a bit heavyier then expected, as I used a combination of Lycra material and a mesh chevon type along bottom. Live and learn right? I still swim just fine but removed the mesh and it was smooth swimming, That first swim was a dream come true. Healing my inner child and finding something that filled my soul was just euphoric.
The pool became more difficult to utilize as questions of saftey arose. I highly recommend being a strong swimmer and never going at it alone as a mermaid, I have been a fish all my life and learned to be a strong swimmer right away so my skills were good. Because of the sudden uptick in mermaid tails and interest pools were becoming more strict on allowing merpeople to swim.
So I begain using the lake for merspiration.
I’d go , and get crazy looks, asked “ how old are you?” or “are you a preformer” an actual next goal of mine. I had to be ery mindful and careful when kids were around, as they wanted to always see my tail. I appreciated the love and joy to block out all the “haters”. I even met a Mer man , yes an actual Mer man who made his own silicone tails and would be at the lake from time to time, It was really cool meeting him but other then mermaiding we didn’t have much in common.
Another day, As I had created my “shark tail” a woman was doing photograpghy and was so delighted by my mermaid tail she offered to take photos of me. It was really lovely as my friends and family were really supportive and tried to be helpful but when a real photographer that has an eye for the perfect mermagical shoots, I was grateful to have a chance to capture the magic.
I traveled to Salem and even met the salem mer man. I was really bonding with the mermaid part of myself and always find a way to connect to my fellow mermaids.
As mermaids become more popular, access to swimming at pool stricter, and issues with bad swimmers having struggles in tails put a damper on the mermaid scene. you had to go to a quiet body of water to swim, or know someoone with a pool big enough to be a comfortable mermaid in.
Fast forward to 2023 and I think the pandemic made it cool as there is more out there on the Mermaid tail scene as shows like “merpeople” came out, and there is more of an interest and acceptance.
Being a mermaid for me, is more then just a fantasy. It is truly a way of life. I feel connected to the Island of Puerto Rico in my merlife. I feel driven to fight for environmental care, greener living, care for the earth and its ocean. It’s even blended with my mortuary and death positive backround for access to greener death care, but thats for another blog.
Thank you so Much for reading a bit on my inspiration for mermaid tail making and looking forward to adding some Mer creations to the website.