Do you consider yourself a REAL mermaid?

[Lailit]

Are so obsessed with mermaids, that you consider yourself "real"?
Is mermaiding more of a lifestyle than a hobby for you? :o

[Princess Kae-Leah]

Interesting question! I don't really consider myself a "real" mermaid as much as a cosplayer/fantasy fan/hobbyist, partly because I'm not a very good swimming so I'm pretty much strictly a "dry" mermaid.

[New York Mermaid]

since i grew up around the ocean, and its animals, plus I've been swimming since i was little- i guess in some way its apart of a lifestyle, my husband calls me a dolphin cause once i get into the water, I love to jump and twirl in the water and I can just hang on the bottom just laying there. I think in some form the moment we don our tails (or monofins) we are instantly transformed into the water creatures we are.

[AniaR]

yes and no? I've always felt different in a big way.

[courtneymermaid]

Well, I'm real and I'm a mermaid so yes! I do consider myself to be a real mermaid. If you have a love for the ocean, the environment and a dream to see our world recover from the devastation the human race is causing, then I believe we are all mermaids/mermen!

For me it is definitely a lifestyle more than a hobby. I swim three, sometimes four times a week and show off my tail on weekends down at the beach. I try whenever I can to spread the word and ask people to please be aware of the mark they are making on our planet.

:)

[Princess Kae-Leah]

@ Raina-as a person on the autism spectrum who identifies as asexual, I've always felt really different too! I think I live a totally different lifestyle than most of my peers, I'm a grown 20-something woman yet I'd rather spend what little disposable income I have on things like collectible dolls, cosplaying, and trips to my favorite place on the planet-Disneyland! I'm very eccentric and I think I'm still kind of a child at heart, I identify a lot with the late Michael Jackson in that way I guess, as well as Lady Gaga. I've grown to be proud of what makes me different, I believe I was basically Born This Way hehe.

[AniaR]

I would say mine is a lifestyle too. The real me and Raina are becoming 1!

[Lailit]

To answer my own question:
Yes, I do feel like I'm really a mermaid. At this moment, very stuck on land, with no good places to swim...
It's mostly to the feeling I get when I put on my monofin (and tail). Like I actually belong under water, and can stay under forever. To bad, I need to breath air, so this feeling isn't very lasting. :P But it's there...!
I'm always looking at water and considering if I could swim there, take pictures there etc. And other things I look at colors for a new tail, or something I could try to make a monofin out off... Yeah, you get the point!

And: I feel like a lot of the mermaids out there are real too! It's like a (not so) secret society that I am so lucky to be a part of! <3

[BengalTiger]

I feel when i get into my tail that its like... an alter ego i guess. I have been swimming for YEARS! Swimming in my tail makes me feel like I can just forget about the rest of the world when im underwater but I'm not sure if I consider myself a "real mermaid"

[Mermaid Photine]

There's a line between my normal awkawrdness and my mermaidishness (that's a word...?) that, after a certain ammount of time in the water, maybe an hour, is crossed and I feel very much like a real mermaid. I could compare it to "warming-up" for a sport, though that tends to take a bit less time. After I cross the line, I am very at ease in the water and am in the mermaid sort of mindset. I also find that I get better at doing flips and spins underwater after an hour. I don't currently own a tail, just a monofin, but I have a great time swimming!

[merboy78xy]

I find this an interesting question. I never really thought about it before, for in the past it was just an obsession of mine that I denied because I didn't want people to think I was stranger than I already am (and boy howdy can I be eccentric!).
But I posed this to one or two of you in a personal email on here that I now open to you all:
I feel like I have been obsessed with mermaids since I can remember. I was only 4 or so asking Santa Clause for mermaid dolls because I was so fascinated with them. Mermaid movies have always been my favorite! So it was as if I was called to it.
Do you all feel the same? If so... does that mean that maybe there is something deep within us, perhaps in past evolution or in our genes or in our spirits that holds a truth about what some of us are or were in the past?
Maybe there is a common truth that we've forgotten through the passage of time and the corruption of technology (not that I don't LOVE technology). Maybe the half animal/half human gods of the egyptians were based in some truth? Maybe the half animal/half human gods of the greeks? Of the Romans? Maybe the animal/human/angel hybrids (read up on the Nephilim) from the Bible's Apocrypha and the book of Enoch is the start? Is part of the truth?
Or maybe (like I read theorized in anthropology class), humans during the evolutions didn't go from the jungles to the plains, but instead went from the jungles to the water? The idea was that there are a number of human traits that support a past water existence: for example... our heart-rate immediately slows when we enter water. Our body hair is streamlined which would support less resistance underwater. And a baby naturally holds its breath when "dunked" underwater.
So is there truth to actual merfolk? Is it part of our past? Are some ancient instincts awakening in us?
hmmmmm......

[MermaidMeiko]

In a way, sorta. I'm probably still too young to really know if I would consider myself real or not. Sure, I was never able to swim normally. I always swam in a mermaid like manner. heeheee. Mermaiding is really all I'm good at... Well, that, and cosplay.... And dance. I like to perform! Superstar! :D *SNL reference*

Maybe someday, it'll be more of a lifestyle. I wanna be a professional mermaid so badly. Maybe someday, I will consider myself a real mermaid.

[Mermaid Hamant]

I do consider myself "real." I think every mermaid secretly does. In my mind, if you love the water, love the ocean's creatures, and love the feeling of being beneath the water or just being in a tail, then you are as real as they come. :)

[MermaidAiera]

I definitely consider myself a real mermaid! The difference with me though, is I have a different view of what a mermaid really is. I feel more comfortable in the water just as me, or even with a pair of swim fins on rather than my tail. I feel like my swimming and breath holding is a reflection of my connections with the mer inside me, and I constantly feel that way in the water ;) It runs especially deep with me, but maybe that's just because I've spent about 70% of my life as a swimmer in water ^~^

[Merman_Ryan]

I consider myself a casual mer. I wish I could swim, model and perform more often but don't have the money, time and the lack of personal self confidence in my body. :P

[MermaidSaku]

Well i don't have a tail yet but i do finally have the money for it not to mention my mermaid top. I often feel the desire to be underwater to swim away as far as i can go.I'm in love with water,and so i would say I'm a mermaid.

[HBMermaid_Angela]

I was able to swim before I could walk. I have always felt more at home in the water then I did on land. My parents always thought I was part fish and when I was 12 I got my SCUBA diving license and the instructors asked me why I was doing it. When I gave them a weird look they said I didn't need a scuba license since I already had gills.

I live a block in from the ocean and everyday I feel like I HAVE to get wet. If I go a day without surfing or swimming in the ocean then I feel "cranky." I currently can hold my breath up to 4 minutes.

So, do I consider myself a real mermaid...yes! Even my husband says I am and that he wouldn't be surprised if one day I just came out with the truth and should off a tail to him.

[Prince Calypso]

i consider it more of a lifestyle then i hobby. since i was a little boy ive kinda conditioned myself to act how i think a mermaid would act. i sit with my leg together and usually bent at the knee. when i preen i usually brush my hair a hundred times imagining myself sitting on a beach somewhere with my tail dipping in the water. even my personal style kinda says mermaid. though it's not all blues and green and sea shells and such it still at-least in my view has a kinda mermaid view to it.

[CynthiaMermaid]

Real mermaid? definately. I grew up near the ocean, but eventually ended up further inland. When looking for a house a few years ago, it just had to have a pool. A girlfriend and I got caught in the rain not long ago, and she said, "you're a mermaid, this won't bother you!"

[mermaidwillow]

real mermaid? hmm. well, of course! love for the sea, need to swim, and a complete and utter comfort in the water all add up to be pretty darn close to a real mermaid!

most of my happiest memories are in the water or at the beach. If I'm at the beach or somewhere with a pool, I just HAVE to get in! one time, I ran out into the ocean in jeans and a t-shirt because I didn't have a bathing suit but... the water is too tempting!

sometimes I find myself jealous of things like H2O or Aquamarine, because they have a mermaid tail that is designed for swimming, is magical, and is very very real. I continually go in the water on full moons, hoping and hoping for a transformation like they have in H2O. (no luck yet, but I'm not giving up!)
However, I do feel that I am a real mermaid, even though my tail is cloth and i can still feel my legs under it. whenever I swim in my tail, no matter the weather be it warm and sunny or water that is practically frigid, I don't have a problem. Just being in my tail makes anything possible for me. :)

[Mermaid Saphira]

I feel I am a real mermaid! I have always felt different..Drawn to the water. I love the creatures from the water and when I put on my tail I feel I have enter a whole other world, one where I can be free and at one with the water. Being a mermaid, in my opinion, is such an amazing thing :)
Funny story: My mom says I am a mermaid cause she use to be called a fish when she swamin the water and my dad, well... he's just human so I'm a mermaid LOL!

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Hmm...

Well, I suppose this all depends on what one's definition of "real" is. I've always felt that, like Santa Claus, the most real things are those that can't be seen.

I don't have a tail or a monofin. I loved mermaid movies. I swam like a merman, with my feet crossed, all the time (still do, on occasion). I hold my breath and dive under the water, swimming along the bottom and looking for sunken jewelry in swimming pools rather than swimming along the surface. I always thought Aquaman and Namor the Sub-Mariner deserved more mainstream attention than they got, and I had my mom make me a merman costume for halloween when I was about six, complete with a trident and a iridescent lavender venetian marbled fabric (it looked like scales to me) walking tail. I've always thought it wrong that gaming versions of the four elements favor fire and earth or air, while shortchanging water or limiting it to ice. I celebrate Earth Day and was an ERM major before I realized that I am awful at chemistry, and am currently interning at an environmental nonprofit in southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. I read constantly, have visited Weeki Wachee at least three times, and watched the Thirteenth Year until I had it memorized. I went to "Summer Sea Camp" at the Camden/Adventure Aquarium for several years as a kid, and served as a lifeguard and swim instructor at our local YMCA. I took S.C.U.B.A. lessons several times, including as one of my Phys Ed credits in college, and still have bedsheets with fish on them, a large angelfish pillow, and pictures of several times where I've gone swimming with dolphins. I always felt different from everyone else around me as well, though I rationalized this by wondering who DOESN'T feel that way.

I think that if I am a real merman, I am a real number of other things too... fairy, djinni, superhero, dragon, unicorn, wizard, etc. Reality is flexible... it is only what we agree to be true, not what we appear to be or what our families are. I am sure that each of us can reach out and take on the aspects of some power or entity that is more than human, and those of us who channel the beauty and mystery of the sea might very well feel that same new life (though I'm not quite there yet). In general, though, I tend to be a bit more reserved, dipping my toes in the water before actually diving in, and I have to point out that there's a lot of power and potential in being human as well.

[MermaidAubrin]

Not on land but the minute I hit the water I'm definitely a real mer

[Princess Kae-Leah]

I feel, even though I cannot swim due to health problems, I lead a mermaid lifestyle. Every day, I do my best to make choices that protect the oceans and its creatures. I don't eat any seafood, I try to reduce my consumption of single-use plastics, I recycle and compost whenever possible, I try to conserve water, I sign and start petitions, and every day I tirelessly advocate for various environmental and animal welfare causes on my mer-page, especially those involving the sea and its inhabitants. To me, being a mer is NOT about how well you can swim or even if you can swim at all, how long you can hold your breath for, or how realistic your tail looks, it's about doing all you can for the ocean. If you do more than the average person to protect our oceans, you are without a doubt a "real" mermaid or merman in my eyes, whether you own a tail or not!

[Mermaid Saphira]

I do consider myself a real mermaid. I have always feel different, more drawn to the ocean than most. I dreamed of one day becoming one with the ocean and that is when I met you mers! I do believe it has become more of a lifestyle for me...I often find myself chatting about it with my fellow mermaid Bubbles or saying what most mermaids say on a daily basis ("bull shark!" etc....) I look at objects and think..how can I make this something useful for a tail! ThanQ u 4 posting this, very interesting thread :)

[Gem Stone]

I consider it a hobby and a lifestyle. Your hobbies are part of your lifestyle, and if it's one it has to be another. As far as being real or not, I know I don't have gills (though I really want them) but I still feel happiest in the water. I get so excited when we got off shore that I can't help but look for fish under the surface. When I jump in, I always float on top with my face in the water, trying to find a fish, any fish. As of yet, I haven't taken my tail offshore yet but I always take it to the beach with me. I love swimming at Weeki Watchee and I can go all the way to the bottom under the pier in one breath. I proved is when I rescued a lady's sunglasses she had dropped. Off topic. Back on topic, I think the answer is yes to both for me.

[Mermaid Saphira]

:p I answer this question twice...

[neonmermaid]

I believe I was a mermaid in a past life. Does that count?

[Prince Calypso]

i belive we are all Real mermaid in the sense that it's a lifestyle we have chosen and it is something we are passionate about.

[cherryblossommermaid]

I definitely consider myself a real mermaid!!! My parents told me that when I was little when I went swimming I would just go to the bottom of the pool and just sit there looking up all calm while they're freaking out. I don't believe that mermaids are judged on what there tails are made of, their size,their skills, their education, or their beauty. But if they believe and if they care about the ocean and its creatures. Only you can judge yourself as a true mermaid or not.

[Tasha Mermaid]

even as a young child i considered myself to be a mermaid....or at least a water nymph, I'm fae in everything and anyone who meets me or knows me says that no matter WHAT i wear i always look like a faerie, so i embody all that fae is so yes i am a real mermaid :)

[MermaidRaegan]

I used to just consider it an obsession: I'd make fabric tails to wear, I'd go swimming every day, I'd collect every mermaid movie I could get my hands on and watch them over and over again.
Then I considered it more of a lifestyle, though I didn't think of myself as 'real'. I don't like deep, dark water because it scares me (never know what's lurking down there! I blame Finding Nemo.), I'm terrified of drowning, and because I stopped swimming all together for two years because I hate chlorinated pools and that's the only option I had besides the bathtub.
It's only in the last year or so that I've begun to think of myself as real. The second I started swimming in the local river everyday I realized that I feel the happiest, the most myself, when I'm in the water. I like the ocean for all of it's variety and amazing creatures, but it never called to me like freshwater does. There are few things I hate more than having to get out, and I always feel clumsy and well... like a fish out of water! If I could spend every day in Aquarena Springs I would; the water is so beautifully clear and I could spend hours just lying on the bottom looking up at the fish and riverweed and nutria swimming by. I consider it a home away from home.
So yeah, I'd say I was a real mermaid. :)

[Ayla of Duluth]

I do feel like a real mermaid. Especially being alone in Duluth with no other mers nearby, I feel unique from everyone else. Although I didn't realize how I felt about myself until my boyfriend took me on his yacht through the apostle islands where he saw me swimming around under the boat. Ever since then, he's called me his mermaid and I've never felt more like one than I do when he says that. :)

[Mermaid Adriel]

I do consider myself "real." I think every mermaid secretly does. In my mind, if you love the water, love the ocean's creatures, and love the feeling of being beneath the water or just being in a tail, then you are as real as they come. :)


^This :mermaid kiss:

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Nope. I am a recreational mermaid. I do it for the exercise and personal enjoyment. If kids see me and they think I'm real, I'll say hello. I'm not that mean that I'll squash some little kid's imagination. I'll play along for a while then go back into doing my own thing.

[Merman Arion]

Nope. I am a recreational mermaid. I do it for the exercise and personal enjoyment. If kids see me and they think I'm real, I'll say hello. I'm not that mean that I'll squash some little kid's imagination. I'll play along for a while then go back into doing my own thing.

I second that statement. It's the same for me but I wouldn't mind going pro and do some performances at pool parties and events someday.

[Mermaid Galene]

Oh, yes. We are all real mers, in whatever sense we choose to claim that identity. I've been making music with fish and dancing with seahorses for years, so I began feeling like a mermaid long before I knew people put on tails and swam around.