Your perspective of a mermaid.

[TheSolitarySiren]

Your perspective of a mermaid.
I hope this hasn't been chat up yet:

“Lately, the wheels in my head have been turning. . .” as the quote goes and I feel like I must express my excitement to hear and learn what you all have to say on personal perspectives of a mermaid. In this topic you are limitless and greatly opinion encouraged, for these mythical beings are surreal. Honestly, I am most interested in if you feel a mermaid has more creature or human properties? Either one, do you apply it to your mermaiding/public appearances?

For example: In my personal opinion I find mermaids to be greatly creature-like. I picture them with great beauty, big flashy eyes, luxurious hair, long fancy webbed ears and hands, and make creature like noises instead of speaking. Which are some of the things I would like to add to my mermaiding in the future. Because I see mermaids as more creature instead of human, I would love to make long prosthetic webbed ears and hands to wear and swim in, and only make creature-istic: purr/chirp/whoop/-ing sounds when talking with my audience.

So, what are your personal perspectives?

TheSoitarySiren

[Rain]

o: Yeah, there is a post like this already up. About the question, for me, it would be nice if mermaids were like characters you see in movies and t.v shows as people with supernatural abilities and such. But in all reality, and logic, mermaids would be more like other animals in the sea, they definitely wouldn't look like the way shows and movies make them appear. They most likely wouldn't look very human at all.

[Mermaid Annariea]

mermaid meshpa does that! the noises i mean, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-asBj4clU
i thought it was super cool. i think they would sound like that, but also be able to speak MANY languages from travelling the ocean. and i agree, siren, with the big eyes and webbed ears and hands. thats how i picture them, at least.

[Mermaid Annariea]

also, i think this picture is sort of relevant, and its funny too.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=merm...+boat#/d2te4gm

[OceanicStory]

I like the idea of merpeople being purely human above the waist (which the exception of obscurely-coloured hair, or webbed fingers, perhaps), and purely fish/cetacean below. I like the idea, but realistically, they'd probably be more "creature" than human, especially if they were to live in the deepest pockets of the ocean.
Still, the "traditional" look of a mermaid could surely be possible, somehow, and let's face it ~ it's all fun and fantasies anyway, so I don't think realism matters as much as our preferences do.

[AptaMer]

Your perspective of a mermaid.

For example: In my personal opinion I find mermaids to be greatly creature-like. I picture them with great beauty, big flashy eyes, luxurious hair, long fancy webbed ears and hands, and make creature like noises instead of speaking.

Thought you might enjoy this little scene from Splash, SolitarySiren!

[TheSolitarySiren]

Thought you might enjoy this little scene from Splash, SolitarySiren!

^

One of the best scenes in the entire movie!~

mermaid meshpa does that! the noises i mean, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-asBj4clU
i thought it was super cool. i think they would sound like that, but also be able to speak MANY languages from travelling the ocean. and i agree, siren, with the big eyes and webbed ears and hands. thats how i picture them, at least.

also, i think this picture is sort of relevant, and its funny too.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=merm...+boat#/d2te4gm

Actually, All of the lovely Merbellas and a few other mers do that. When I first found out by watching one of their videos I felt jealous because I thought they had stole the idea from me. XD. All mers just think alike I suppose. They are beautiful.

And that picture is perfect!~ I love the artist's idea in the photo. I can see that happening to ALOT of sailors during the day. Being lured in by a beautiful woman only for the creature attached to her to eat them!

[Mermaid Enhydrina]

Don't know if I'm late to the conversation, but I've thought a lot about the "scientific probabilities" of mermaid looks.
I think that if mermaids had scales (and this is assuming that mermaids are mammals) they would be more like the scales on rat tails. Not true scales, but with the same affect as those of cold-blooded animals. I haven't really thought about hair, or ears, but I think they would have sharp teeth(at least sharper than humans.) But that's just me and what makes sense in my mind. I also like the thing about making clicking/chirping sounds while in character.

[New York Mermaid]

Hahaha i didint even knw merbella mermaids did that..

I worked with marine animals so long Ive picked up on imitating certain sound like dolphin clicking noises and the squeals when im excited, also a few other sounds here and there. great to use in mermaid form with kids. I use the clicking noise both opened and close mouthed its freaks people out, I also make the loud exhale noise, like whales do.. I guess thats why my hubby says im "part dolphin". Im so use to doing it, it slips out in my human form every once in a blue

I personally believe my perception of a mermaid isint the enticing siren, but more of what we all look like, all different and beautiful in our own way, shape or form, some scaled and some smooth. maybe like a shark skin, soft one way, rough another. I guess thats why those stories of mermaids in human form are told.

[Alveric]

I don't see merfolk as being the product of evolution. My mermaids are created by magic (The Accidental Mermaid) or genetically engineered (Spindrift). As such they are not limited to just one type.

[SeaGlass Siren]

Al, if they were genetically engineered, wouldnt that be a form of evolution? sorry just thinking about SF class.

[Alveric]

Maybe instead of evolution I should have wrote natural selection. Genetic engineering then would be unnatural selection.

[SeaGlass Siren]

Maybe instead of evolution I should have wrote natural selection. Genetic engineering then would be unnatural selection.

when i was little, i used to think mermaids were caveman-humans first but then they decided to return to the sea with all the other creatures (like the manatee) and became dolphins. but before they become dolphins they were mermaids.

is that wierd?

[MerEmma]

Hm...for me, I really love the idea of them being beautiful, long hair, large and very detailed eyes...all of that. Not sure about the webbed fingers. I love the idea of them chirping and clicking, and I'd love to do that when I'm "in character", but I want to communicate more than that with children so I can tell stories, so I think I'm going to speak both English and some name of Mer-ysian/Mer-lish/etc.

My perspective is pretty much like that...their own language and culture. I'm still thinking about it a lot, though.

[OceanicStory]

when i was little, i used to think mermaids were caveman-humans first but then they decided to return to the sea with all the other creatures (like the manatee) and became dolphins. but before they become dolphins they were mermaids.

is that wierd?

I don't know whether humans are genetically related to dolphins, but we share many similar traits, so, if you wanted to expand on the mermaid mithos somewhat, that wouldn't be a bad theory. You’d have to go with the notion that all mermaids were cetacean-like, and not at all fish-like, of course.

[Mermaid Melanie]

I wonder if in the future we will evolve to be more able bodied for water - selective breeding of amazing freedivers and swimmers ... adapt with change

[roamingmer]

Perhaps - but athletic ability is also a personal choice as well as genetic disposition. A low heart rate also helps but how many people train for that? Unless there is a significant lifestyle change amongst the world peoples it will always be in selected communities...

[SeaGlass Siren]

I don't know whether humans are genetically related to dolphins, but we share many similar traits, so, if you wanted to expand on the mermaid mithos somewhat, that wouldn't be a bad theory. You’d have to go with the notion that all mermaids were cetacean-like, and not at all fish-like, of course.

i do go with the notion that mermaids were cetacean-like, because clicking, squeeing and whistling sounds would be possible.... if in theory they were real. but for now, i let my fantasies unwind and in my mind there are different types of mers~~ jellyfish mers.. octo mers... crustacean mers...

[OceanicStory]

I wonder if in the future we will evolve to be more able bodied for water - selective breeding of amazing freedivers and swimmers ... adapt with change

Throw in a tail with that evolution, and I'd be happy!

[OceanicStory]

i do go with the notion that mermaids were cetacean-like, because clicking, squeeing and whistling sounds would be possible.... if in theory they were real. but for now, i let my fantasies unwind and in my mind there are different types of mers~~ jellyfish mers.. octo mers... crustacean mers...

That's what to do. Employ too much sense, and fantasy just loses it's shine a little. ^^