CAITLIN NIELSEN: I’m a mermaid. I’m literally a real-life mermaid.
COMM: You may think that mermaids are only
seen in fairy tales or Disney films, but there is a secret community of mer-folk growing.
THOR RADFORD: At first it looked like, I was,
I thought I was seeing things, you know, I was like, “What was that?” You know, “Is
that a dolphin that got into the lake?” Because every once in a while we get seals
and what not. They will come into the lake. And here comes this giant tail and up pops
Ed, and I was like…it shocked me. It was really, it was crazy.
ED BROWN: It’s a bit of lifestyle for me
because I live on a boat. I always like to be around the water. I work on a boat. My
mer-name is Mahtlinnie. I think it can be like a hobby and a passion and a way of life
for a lot of people, like it’s all three wrapped into one. People are into it for conservation
reasons, because they want to try and promote conservation of ocean life.
COMM: Ed, Tessie and Caitlin are all part
of an emerging community of mer-people in Seattle.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: My mermaid name is Cyanea.
A little while back I did quit my day job, so that I could focus full time on being a
mermaid, so now, I currently work out of my home, in this little studio that I have set
up in our spare room and I make prosthetic-quality silicon tails out of dragon skin, platinum
silicon. I also make accessories and I make little sea creatures as well. This is my sea serpent tail.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: The inspiration for this
was part biology and part fantasy, obviously. It took me an entire year to make.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: When I was kindergarten and
the teacher asked everyone to go around and say what they want to be when they grew up,
I said a mermaid. Everyone laughed at me and now here I am, I’m a mermaid.
ED BROWN: As a mer-person, I’m not that
different from the way I am on land. But I feel like, I’m a lot, it’s a lot easier
to talk to people. If I’m in street clothes and I’m out on the town, I really don’t
like it when people talk to me, l get really nervous. But when I’m in my tail, it’s
a lot easier to talk to people.
TESSIE LAMOUREA: My mermaid name is Mermaid
Essie, I have a lot of body insecurities. I think a lot of people do. But when I’m
in my tail, I don’t feel insecure anymore. Because suddenly, it doesn’t matter what
size I am, because I’m a mermaid and that’s what people really focus on. When I take my
tail off, it almost feels like a piece of me has come off.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: I’ve always felt a little
bit of, kind of an outsider or a loner and a little bit eccentric. So, discovering that
there was a mermaid community and that I could actually wear a mermaid tail and outwardly
express what I always felt that I was inside, it was really freeing and so, I do, I do feel
like I’m showing my true self to the world.
TESSIE LAMOUREA: I think a lot of people do
get into it because putting on a tail is probably one of the greatest feelings in the world.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: It really is.
COMM: And having a beautiful fish tail is
absolutely imperative to being a dedicated mer-person.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: I do feel like my tail is
a part of me. And I do actually feel like it is a prosthetic limb. I sometimes joke
that I wear a prosthetic, because I was born with a terrible birth defect, which is legs.
ED BROWN: I like it because, I personally
think it is fun. Like I can never have a bad day swimming, no matter what happens. When
I’m in the water with my tail on, it’s just, it’s like magic. I just automatically
feel less like an awkward person swimming and more like a creature that belongs in the water.
TESSIE LAMOUREA: When I put it on, it’s
like nothing else matters and I’m a mermaid and I can do whatever it is that I feel like doing.
COMM: But being a mermaid is not something
that’s easy for everyone to understand.
TESSIE LAMOUREA: When I told my mother I wanted
to be a mermaid, she just kept laughing at me.
CORA LAMOUREA: I thought it was a stupid idea
at first. I thought it will just be a waste of money and a waste of time. I thought her
time can best be used studying her lessons as a graduate student, rather than swimming
with a tail in the ocean or swimming pool or some place. And I said, “Forget it. That’s
a lot of money invested in tails” and she said, ‘I’ll save every money that I have
and I’m gonna get my first tail.”
TESSIE LAMOUREA: My mother has been incredible
despite the fact that she thinks that this is an absolute ludicrous thing to do.
ED BROWN: The best part of being a mer-person
is I think the chance to sort of live out a dream or a fantasy, to be something other
than who you are for a little while.
CAITLIN NIELSEN: I’ve always felt really
at one with the water and the ocean.
TESSIE LAMOUREA: I love how children’s eyes
light up. I love the way that, when they look at you as a mermaid, suddenly everything is
possible again and that magic is real. There is no rules involved. You can do whatever
it is that you want to do and no one can tell you that it’s wrong.