Mermaid LEATHER??!

[Mermaid Narina]

So there is this company that produces fish leather, and the company's name is Mermaid Leather.
http://www.mermaidleather.com.au/
A friend suggested making a mermaid tail out of it, what do you think?
If any vegans are offended by this, I'm sorry, i dont mean to upset anyone xx
If you read on the website:

"Established in 1989 in the pristine coastal Golden Outback town of Esperance, Western Australia, two local fishermen saw a need to recycle skins from the fish processing food industry. This environmentally friendly philosophy and sustainable outlook is the anchor behind Mermaid’s family run business that prides itself on its exclusive handcrafted fish leather."

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[AniaR]

Yeah I remember seeing this on mer yuku. I think at the time we all agreed the actual leather looked neat and would be cool for a tail, but everyone was also not really big on killing a fish to do it. I did wonder if it was fake like the sting ray skinned sneakers one....

[Mermaid Danielle]

Huh... interesting...

[Mermaid Dottie]

It would have to be a dry tail. You can't get leather wet to speak of after its tanned, or it'll warp.

[Usagi]

I'm sure there's plenty of mers that eat fish..isn't it just made from the skin left over? Idk I'm all confused and stuff from some medicine I'm taking right now so maybe I just don't understand or read it wrong or something lol

[Elle]

I'm sure there's plenty of mers that eat fish..isn't it just made from the skin left over? Idk I'm all confused and stuff from some medicine I'm taking right now so maybe I just don't understand or read it wrong or something lol

You are right, so you can un-confuse yourself. They take the skins from the fishing industry and use them instead of them being disposed of by however the industry disposes of them.

[Usagi]

Is the leather stinky? Fish don't smell very good, if you ask me. Haha then again, it'll just be a more realistic tail!

[Usagi]

So I was thinking about it just now and wouldn't you WANT to use it, so it doesn't just go to waste? It made me think of Temple Grandin (which is funny because Claire Danes is on the cover of the magazine next to me) when the guys put bull testicles on her windshield and she freaks out on them, telling them it's a waste and all that. And it also made me think of great plains native americans (I think) that used every bit of the cattle and other creatures they killed because it would be a waste and disrespectful to just leave parts of them behind when you can get use out of everything.

[Elle]

Is the leather stinky? Fish don't smell very good, if you ask me. Haha then again, it'll just be a more realistic tail!

hahaha. when making leather it get's treated (multiple times) Otherwise it will rot and fall apart and really really stink :) leather has it's own smell but it wouldn't smell fish stinky :)

[Tasha Mermaid]

i personally would never use it, i would never want a fish to die for me to live out a fantasy, it is all good to say "but it will just go to waste" but remember so many species are over fished and the more "demand" for a tail made from fish the more they will fish out to meet the demand, and we should be showing people that bad treatment of the ocean life is not ok, so yeah for me, i couldn't do it, between my animal activist and conservationist past, it just would not feel right, even before i was vegan i refused to wear leather, silk or wool, i have never found it nice.

On another note, you are right to think it would look more realistic, but yes leather would warp in the water, unless they had some new technique i'm not aware of, again it is up to you as to what you decide. :)

[Mermaid Allie]

Thats so horribly that they make wallets out of stingray leather. theyre my favorite animals. They're so happy and friendly omg they look like they're smiling. I went to feed them at the cleveland aquarium and it was AMAZING. They're literally like water puppies. I would probably feel uncomfortable wearing the fish leather tho. I completely understand using the whole animal, but you never know if they REALLY only use recycled fish skin. It just wouldn't feel right to me.

[Mermaid Momo]

I saw that too, and i really want to buy some to make a few journals/sketchbooks for myself (i'm a bibliophile so books and bookbinding is sort of my thing LOL)believe it or not, but it's actually a bit hard to find companies like this that uses leftovers instead of killing new animals and throwing away the other parts to make leather. I wouldn't really feel bad about using it because it'll fit in with my "waste not" views. But a tail out of the stuff would be very uncomfortable and who knows how it will stand up to the exposure to water.

[Mermaid Narina]

Yeah, at first I was really shocked and i was thinking "how can they do that!!?? Its cruel!" it would look realistic but it wouldnt stretch for swimming! :O And i would feel kind of weird wearing it :P
but its mermaid related so i felt the need to post it! :D

[NatalieMermaid]

I have worked a lot with leather and fish skin leather in the past. As a dry tail the pattern would look cool, however most of the sheets of fish skin leather you will get are not very large and in the shape of a long thin oval. If it is real and not synthetic the skin can only be as large as the fish was. This was my biggest problem while I was working with it. Aligning the different fish bodies so the lines matched up was quite difficult. It also can come very thin which is very delicate an years easily but thinker is pretty durable. For something small I think it could be an option but of for anything large. As a tail it might look like a frankentail

when it gets wet it doesn't have the nicest .smell even after its been dried, tanned and stained. The Oder it emits when wet is not the most attractive smell.

Just as a heads up, that cool scale looking design you see is actually the backside of their skin. Wen dried, tanned and died the side that used to have scales actually does of look like much and its the inside of the skin that has that cool pattern.