Propelled by a shimmering silicon tail, Katrin Gray spins underwater, blowing kisses to the audience as her long, copper hair floats around her face. Her seemingly effortless movement is anything but \u2013 a professional mermaid\u2019s free diving and performance skills require training, practice and total concentration.<\/p>\n
Mermaiding has become a global cottage industry, with pageants, conventions, retreats and meet-ups, where people gather in \u201cpods\u201d to practise their dolphin kicks. Makers create bespoke tail flukes, bejewelled bras, mermaid hair and even prosthetic gills for professional and hobbyist \u201cseasters\u201d. There is even a Netflix reality series called MerPeople, which documents <\/strong>the occasionally perilous journey of several aspiring professional merfolk. \u201cNo dead mermaids,\u201d is the motto of one business featured.<\/p>\n Mermeow Awn, real name Mongplearn Uttama, who says mermaiding has been a \u2018lifeline\u2019 for her. Photograph: Mermeow Awn<\/p>\n Gray, who goes by Mermaid Kat, is an industry veteran. While working as a scuba diving instructor in Phuket, a childhood obsession with Disney\u2019s Little Mermaid led to her asking a wetsuit maker to fashion a cover for her monofin.<\/p>\n \u201cPhuket is quite a small island and it didn\u2019t take too long for people to notice a crazy girl swimming around in a mermaid tail,\u201d she says. People asked her to perform at birthday parties and public events, and soon after she was working as a mermaid full-time. \u201cIt just took off.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2012, Gray founded the world\u2019s first mermaid school. Since then, more than 12,000 students have attended her classes and workshops in Germany, Thailand and Australia.<\/p>\n Mermaid Kat (Katrin Gray) performing at a birthday party. Photograph: Mermaid Kat<\/p>\n On top of learning to dive underwater with your legs tied together \u2013 using an undulating motion similar to a butterfly kick \u2013 Gray\u2019s beginner lessons cover safety, surface swimming and the importance of being an \u201cocean ambassador\u201d. Her multi-day international retreats, meant for aspiring full-time performers, sell out months in advance.<\/p>\n Melbourne-based Tara Schwarz, known as Mermaid Tarielle, has also \u201cmade a career out of swimming in glittering tails\u201d. Last year, she attended a mermaid convention in Germany, where she held workshops on underwater makeup.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a skill in itself to get a full makeup look that not only stays on in the water, but also pops,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Mermaid Tarielle, AKA Tara Schwarz, in the water. \u2018To do this kind of work you need to be training regularly, to work on your lung capacity,\u2019 she says. Photograph: Mermaid Kat<\/p>\n There are occupational hazards behind the magic. Keeping your eyes open underwater means blurry vision; sinus and ear infections are common; hypothermia and sea sickness are a possibility, and, when you\u2019re finished, getting out of skin-tight silicon is a struggle.<\/p>\n Gray and Schwarz have had their share of extreme aquatic adventures. Gray has starred alongside an inquisitive hammerhead in an anti-shark-finning campaign video in the Bahamas and remembers feeling distinctly overwhelmed as a 4-metre long American crocodile swam overhead in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cTo do this kind of work you need to be training regularly, to work on your lung capacity,\u201d Schwarz says. A calm state of mind and low heart rate determine \u201chow much power you have to put into the movement and how long you can stay underwater\u201d.<\/p>\n Mermaid Tarielle with friends. \u2018If it was always easy, I wouldn\u2019t find it fun any more,\u2019 Shwarz says. Photograph: Mermaid Kat<\/p>\n Mermaid performances are a chance to share ocean conservation messages. At birthday parties Schwarz, who has a background as a children\u2019s entertainer, will play a game similar to pass the parcel, \u201cin which I tell them about how I collected all this treasure from the ocean but I also found all this rubbish,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe agree it\u2019s such a shame that I had to spend all the time cleaning up the rubbish before I was able to collect the treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n Ocean conservation is also the main game for Perth based Mongplearn Uttama, AKA Mermeow Awn. \u201cI started off doing corporate events \u2026 but really prefer just being involved in events that help community,\u201d she says. \u201cI love doing beach and underwater cleanups as a volunteer mermaid.<\/p>\n \u201cWe use the power of the mermaid lure to get people to come and help us pick up rubbish. It seems to work. When they know that mermaids will be there, they come.\u201d<\/p>\n Mermeow Awn, who says the water helped soothe her in the wake of a loss. \u2018I just swam the tears away,\u2019 she says. Photograph: Mermeow Awn<\/p>\n Mermaiding has been a lifeline for Uttama. \u201cI lost someone very important to me and I was dealing with depression,\u201d she says. But when she first dived into a pool, she felt free.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t cry in the water. It is so quiet and it mutes your senses. I didn\u2019t think of anything \u2026 I just swam the tears away. Once I put the mermaid tail on, my life was changed for ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Stories like Uttama\u2019s are common among merfolk. \u201cPeople who want to be mermaids and mermen are people who want to invite more colour and fantasy into their lives, and there is often a reason for that,\u201d Gray says.<\/p>\n Like any community, it has its share of drama and gossip behind the scenes, which is why, as a mermaid mentor, she emphasises the important of finding the right pod. And when it comes to more spectacular stunts, both Gray and Schwarz say a skilled safety team is essential too.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anything goes wrong, they are able to come in with air no matter where I am or what\u2019s going on,\u201d Schwarz says. \u201cWhen I do a deeper dive, I always have people \u2026 who understand the technical side of free diving, to be able to offer the right kind of support.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf it was always easy, I wouldn\u2019t find it fun any more,\u201d Schwarz says. \u201cThere is a part of me \u2013 the free diver \u2013 that loves to push myself. The beauty of mermaiding is you get to do that while looking beautiful and graceful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Propelled by a shimmering silicon tail, Katrin Gray spins underwater, blowing kisses to the audience as her long,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115890467838955692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}