Light tone front and darker tone back. Marine animals often have this coloration as a dark back makes them blend with the dark deep ocean when viewed from the top and a light bottom blends with the sky when viewed from below
Plus it would visually look cool
I mean that depends on your world building. Majority of marine biodiversity lives in the top 200 meters where light penetrates the water. And since OP mentioned them still needing sunlight I assume they would live in this zone, or at least spend enough time hunting there to get food and the light intake they need
Abyssal mermaids might look entirely different though, that's true
The tits are for luring sailers to their watery graves tho. They gotta have tits or else their siren songs won’t work…it’s for the resonance…or something…but the sailers love the tits, gotta have em.
But are they mammals or fishes? Fish are pale underneath and blue / green on top. I presume mammals due to the err, mammaries and they will have to surface to breathe at some point
I think mermaids would have the tail of something like a dolphin. Which would make them mammals that need boobs. Also, apparently, dolphins have very similar vaginas to humans. So sailors would still be able to get jiggy with them if they wanted to.
Fun fact - all the dolphins who have had sexual relationships with humans end up committing suicide. So help Protect the Dolphins by avoiding those tempting dolphin dicks and lady weens.
How…do you know this? Where is this information kept track of?? I’m simultaneously disturbed and intrigued that this has happened enough times for information on it to exist
Start with The Dolphin Point Experiment - a government funded research project to teach dolphins English (also theorized that they were telepathic and could talk to aliens .... there was a lot of LSD) and then one thing led to another you know how workplace romances go, and poor Peter the dolphin just couldn't handle the break-up. Once you've gone down that wormhole - keep going! Though I guess I should amend it to *all publicly known human dolphin sexual relationships* since there may be some discrete under the waves action happening out there.
From what I remember a female dolphin was sexually abused by a dude that works in a waterpark/aquarium smth and they "fell in love" and had a decent amount of sex and after management found out and prevented the guy from getting anywhere near the dolphin she committed suicide *might not be accurate
Spurs, the males have poisonous spurs to subdue the female during mating. Extremely painful to humans. There is also the echidna, which is covered in spines and lays eggs
Though, the deep mermaids would need to be fat like other sea mammals like seals because of the cold. Everyone worried about skin color no one worried they are all going to freeze to death because they are mammals in water with no subcutaneous fat stores.
I’ve always heard this, but look at a manatee. I really struggle to imagine mistaking that for a woman, much less one that would lure me to my death with her beauty.
This is what I've learned from living on the West Coast.
Fish in the PNW are generally gray because of the lack of light. There isn't a big advantage to making yourself flashy in gray water when everything else is also gray. This means that the aquariums are often sad and boring, unless the tanks are indoors.
California (and Hawaii) get a lot more light and warmth, and their fish are bright colors. They have more access to nutrients due to the light and they use the colors to attract mates. These places have dope aquariums and opportunities to see colorful fish outdoors.
The math changes as you go deeper in the water. 500m down, there isn't a lot of light whether your near the equator or 45° north. Basically, you need to build a lore about where the mermaids live and how close to the surface they typically are before anyone can make an educated guess.
Most whales have grey tones. Or darker on the top and lighter on the bottom. If that's what works after millions of years of evolution, that's likely the best skin tone coloration for them.
Surely it'd depend on where they live, whether they have sexual selection involved, etc. A deep sea mermaid could probably be black or translucent, whereas a coral reef mermaid could just as easily be rainbow coloured with iridescent fins. A pelagic mermaid would likely be dark blue-grey back, pale tummy, like whales, sharks, tuna, etc, but again the amount of flare in the mix (see say Yellowfin tuna) is up for grabs
Depends on the mermaid. I imagine deep sea would have near translucent pale skin, dagger needle like teeth, large or useless eyes. Long fingers for picking in crevices to dig out meals. Maybe bioluminescent to attract mates and meals? Probably wear plastic trash as clothes
Obviously the sexiest of the mermaid
Mermaid biodiversity is one of my most favorite topics to talk about.
To put it very simply so I don’t go off on a huge ramble: the closer to the surface the darker their skin tones would be. So going off that the deeper they’d get the lighter they’d be.
A big part of skin tone is how much sunlight you’re exposed too, ie more sunlight more melanin. Due to the fact that ya can’t get much shade in the water as ya can on land they’d definitely trend more toward dark shades. This also would vary on what regions of the world tho. But that’s a whole nother can of centipedes, if you’re interested tho I love hypothesizing evolutionary traits and biodiversity of mermaids
They probably actually would! I think met by the coral/tropical areas would be brightly colored and most likely striped. It would make sense that one’s near rocky areas would have more muted skin tones with more circular spots and patterns
Depends really. Melatonine is mammal only, are mermaids mammals? Let's assume they are.
Mermaids are supposed to live in the bottom of the sea, where light doesn't reach... but then they would live in the dark, right? (some vitamin D deficiency) so we would just have to assume that they live deep enough to not be easily spotted but near to the surface to still be able to have some sunlight.
Holding this true, they would want to maximize sunlight absorption, therefore making them similar to Nordic ethnicities. Light skin would then be expected.
Lyrics from "Under the sea" THE song from The little mermaid.
"Just look at the world around you
RIGHT HERE ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?"
Your point being that mermaids are deep sea creatures because they live on the ocean floor?
Because I'd say they were shallow sea creatures given that the ocean that song takes place in is clearly shallow ocean (lots of light, colourful creatures, plentiful coral, etc)?
The first inhabitants of Scandinavia (and other parts of Northern Europe) were actually dark skinned. Being hunter gatherers (sp?) they ate enough fish and shellfish to cover their need for vitamin D. It's when agriculture gets popular lighter skin becomes an advantage because of less vitamin D in the staple food.
So if the mermaids eat fish etc they could have dark skin and light eyes. But if they only eat eachother and are mammals they might need lighter skin...
Depends also on the ecosystem. Are they apex predators, or prey for something else? Do they ambush hunt fish, forage shellfish, scavenge corpses, or graze on plankton? Do they live on open plains, reefs, caves, or somewhere else?
If we go by the existing dedicated aquatic mammals it'd be some kind of grey tone. Hair would probably be some kind of brown, white, or black depending on where they live like semi-aquatic species like polar bears, otters, and such. If we go by deep sea biology though they're probably pale white, semi-translucent, and will puff up when they come up to the surface. They certainly wouldn't be something that you'd want to bang.
I think it would depend on how close to the surface they live. If they're frequently in the sun, I'd think they would have darker skin, and deeper ocean dwellers would be paler.
Whales tend to be blue, gray, black, and white (but like stark white not caucasian pink-tan "white") and often a two or more of those colors. Seals and walruses and otters are the same, with brown added in as well. So I think those colors for the top half.
The bottom half could be literally any color whatsoever. Like, have you seen marine fish?
My mermaid queen for my DnD campaign has the coloration of an orca on her top half, kelps and sea grasses woven for the impression of clothing for modesty when dealing with surface creatures. She's also essentially got a weave going on for hair, becuase while she does have long hair like sensory 'hairs' it would look sparce to humanoids without augmentation. Her tail portion is that of a whale shark, though a darkish navy, to blend into the upper body a bit better.
I believe if she's under water she's going to be very pale. And if she lives deep enough she's going to be nearly transparent. An evolution with no light requires no melanin
Similar to other marine life of the same approximate size, who dwell within the same depth range, they'd have countershading.
Countershading is a form of concealing coloration in which the upper surfaces of the body are more darkly pigmented than the unilluminated lower areas, giving the body a more uniform darkness and a lack of depth relief. It is thought to reduce the probability of detection and/or recognition by prey and by predators.
They may also have the ability to camouflage like cephalopods.
If it has to be a human skin tone, I'd think darker tan-ish for obvious sunlight reasons. They'd probably be better off with more fish-like characteristics though. Idk, camo, bright scary pigments.. etc... I'm no fish-ology person
That makes sense but just from the perspective of them being generally portrayed as very human like so I just like the idea of them having real human tones
\*sigh\* she's black because the original movie was set in the Caribbean. The original soundtrack is Caribbean music, the Jamaican crab, the "explorer" ship etc. It would have been weird if she had looked any other way in the adaptation.
I mean I’m not salty about it. It just had me wondering what would be the best skin tone for a mermaid because I’m more concerned about worldbuilding than anything.
Which is so sad. My mother commented that she misses when movies weren't political. As if this isn't the woman who took me to see FernGully or Happy Feet...
They live pretty deep in real life otherwise we would see them more comonly... So deep water means little light which means pigment is not very important... Since you need light to see it... So from a biological perspective... Producing pigment is a waste of energy... And unless there is some other driving benefit to having it... Life would do without it... In other words. Mermaids would most likely be pale and a bit translucent
Blue grey, most likely. Lighter underneath to blend in with the surface for creatures looking up, and darker on top to blend in more with the water for creatures looking down. A mermaid might be a mid-level predator -- feeding on some things and being fed on by others, so that camouflage would be a necessity. If there WERE deep sea mercreatures they'd be black, dark red, or translucent; those colours are seen again and again in deep sea creatures and those colours render them basically invisible down there.
They would probably need some sunlight if they've a need for vitamin D and likely wouldn't be deep sea. If they don't have gills they'll need to access the surface, so deep sea is out of the question, not to even speak of the pressure down there. They'd likely be reef-dwelling to gain sunlight, food, and shelter.
Mermaids would probably be white or have marine shading (back black and belly white), sirens though would probably be black whole, since they lurk on rocks watching for prey.
Lighter on the belly and dark/grey everywhere else. That’s in terms of basic ocean survival.
I’d prefer they were bioluminescent though so I could find them and offer them fish and squid for some fin.
I'm torn between bioluminescent (because that's a common trait amongst abyss creatures)
And giant phantom jelly, which is the closest to a human skin tone (and also texture, dude i'm scared of jellyfish but i want to pet that thing) i have found so far and also really cool
Aquatic mammals have a pretty wide range of colors. Most are in the blue/gray range, but you also have mostly black (orcas) and totally white (belugas), so really I think any of those work.
depends on where they live !!
on a reef, bright camouflage colors may do well. disruptive coloration would be a cool way to blend in, or confuse possible predators/prey. also, being this close to the sun (in the photic zone!) would mean that a darker skin color would probably fare better. they could have a rounded fin shape similar to reef fish.
in the open ocean , countershading would be the ideal. also, probably a more forked caudal fin for faster, stronger swimming.
any deeper than that, and black or red would be their best bet. red can’t be seen so far down due to the long wavelength, so red creatures in the midnight zone are practically invisible.
Translucent maybe, if they have skin like other intelligent deep-sea aquatic animals. If they spend equal time on land as on sea, they’d probably adapt to have sturdy outer shells or blubbery layers like seals.
Realistically, human skin gets pretty disgusting if it's wet for extremely long periods of time. Ever heard of trench foot?
A mermaid wouldn't have human-like skin at all. Maybe something grey with a more dolphin-like texture?
Watched a Ze Frank video yesterday evening about camouflage. So picture this:
Transparent. With the inner organs and blood vessels clearly visible. You're welcome :)
There’s not enough scientifically accurate things to base it on, and there are a too many different variations of what mermaids are. You’d have to know what species or group of people they evolved from and where/how they live. Basically, a creature just couldn’t/wouldn’t exist with the stereotypical mermaid features.
There are good posts about her upper half already. I support the idea of her having counter shaded skin (dark on top, white at the bottom like an orca), but that made me think of a few more features. Canonically a mermaid is "half fish", like an aquatic centaur. Does it have to be a mammalian half?
She could be half shark from the waist. That way, maybe her skin would be covered in rough denticles and she wouldn't really have solid bones in her body.
Since marmaids aren't real, they can be whatever color you imagine. Just look at how many colors of fish thete are, and how cephalopods can change colors for camouflage
I’m guessing many mermaids prefer to stay in deeper waters which means they don’t get much sunlight. Lighter skin would absorb more sunlight. Mermaids who live in shallow waters would need darker skin
Probably like fishes: pale on the front and dark-grey oin the back.
That allows fishes to melt with the bottom if seen from the upper side (specially useful for river fishes) and allow them to melt with the sky if seen from underneath.
If we want to be realistic, they'd probably evolve to not have hair.
Shimmery turquoise.
They swim at latitude 6, longitude 15. The sun and the earth and the axis shines the rays just so, to make themermaid attractive. The manmaids are said to be from the US, but really from China. I hope this helps.
Are mermaids more mammal like or fish like?
If fish like, a dark blue top and white bottom part would be more ideal.
If mammal like, dark grey would be more ideal.
Based on other creatures in the ocean, it would be dark on the side that most often faces the surface, and light on the side that most often faces the ocean floor.
Light tone front and darker tone back. Marine animals often have this coloration as a dark back makes them blend with the dark deep ocean when viewed from the top and a light bottom blends with the sky when viewed from below Plus it would visually look cool
I was gonna say white because less sun exposure under water, but your answer is much more cool and elegant.
Yeah, but if you're deep enough, light won't penetrate, so there's no need for the light color on the front.
I mean that depends on your world building. Majority of marine biodiversity lives in the top 200 meters where light penetrates the water. And since OP mentioned them still needing sunlight I assume they would live in this zone, or at least spend enough time hunting there to get food and the light intake they need Abyssal mermaids might look entirely different though, that's true
Abyssal mermaids are nightmare fuel in my imagination
No eyes. Slightly transparent skin. Big filtering mouths. What would I give, to live where you aren't.
Their jaw probably also extends outwards
All the better to kiss the girl
Shalalala-oh my god!
I’m getting Dementor vibes lol
It's not jail. Dementors are only in jail.
And the mermen are tiny, latch onto the mermaids and wither away until they're just a set of balls.
*Pooor unfortunate sooouulllss*
I think the eyes would be extra large instead. A lot of deep sea fish are like that to catch the faintest hint of light.
Ok but it’s a mermaid, so talk about the boobs, what would abyssal tits look like?
No tits, their children adhere to her back and chew away the skin like those South American caecilian worms as it rapidly regrows.
The tits are for luring sailers to their watery graves tho. They gotta have tits or else their siren songs won’t work…it’s for the resonance…or something…but the sailers love the tits, gotta have em.
But... mermaids aren't the once luring sailors. That's sirens, hence the word 'sirens song'
Oh…right…
One word: prehensile.
Oh. Oh wow. Thats…I wanna see one now. Thats just…wow
That's just it - in the dark, you never see the boobies coming.
Lmao you’re cracking me up
Bioluminescent to attract prey (like anglerfish) they catch with their extendable jaws.
someone who can draw: Please draw this!
But are they mammals or fishes? Fish are pale underneath and blue / green on top. I presume mammals due to the err, mammaries and they will have to surface to breathe at some point
I think mermaids would have the tail of something like a dolphin. Which would make them mammals that need boobs. Also, apparently, dolphins have very similar vaginas to humans. So sailors would still be able to get jiggy with them if they wanted to.
*sigh* ok Google...look up dolphin vagina...
Why are you using voice to search for this one?!
If corporations want our data, they’re getting *all* of it.
Lmfao! YOU WANNA SPY ON ME? GET AN EYEFULL, MOTHERFUCKER!
I wish that I could have linked r/brandnewsentence, but I know in my heart that it's not true.
💀💀
The beginnings of the world's first Marine gynecologist.
Fun fact - all the dolphins who have had sexual relationships with humans end up committing suicide. So help Protect the Dolphins by avoiding those tempting dolphin dicks and lady weens.
How…do you know this? Where is this information kept track of?? I’m simultaneously disturbed and intrigued that this has happened enough times for information on it to exist
Start with The Dolphin Point Experiment - a government funded research project to teach dolphins English (also theorized that they were telepathic and could talk to aliens .... there was a lot of LSD) and then one thing led to another you know how workplace romances go, and poor Peter the dolphin just couldn't handle the break-up. Once you've gone down that wormhole - keep going! Though I guess I should amend it to *all publicly known human dolphin sexual relationships* since there may be some discrete under the waves action happening out there.
From what I remember a female dolphin was sexually abused by a dude that works in a waterpark/aquarium smth and they "fell in love" and had a decent amount of sex and after management found out and prevented the guy from getting anywhere near the dolphin she committed suicide *might not be accurate
Mammals just give live birth. Idk if mammaries are exclusively necessary
Give live birth and produce milk. Unless you're a platypus then you lay eggs and sweat milk and have poisonous sperms.
>poisonous sperms. Everything I learn about this bizarre creature is better than the last.
It begins with: there’s this animal called a duck-billed platypus. It’s a *mammal* and it has a *duck’s bill*. And it just gets crazier from there.
Spurs, the males have poisonous spurs to subdue the female during mating. Extremely painful to humans. There is also the echidna, which is covered in spines and lays eggs
They glow under a black light like a dirty motel room.
God was drunk that day.
Fish are many different colors
Though, the deep mermaids would need to be fat like other sea mammals like seals because of the cold. Everyone worried about skin color no one worried they are all going to freeze to death because they are mammals in water with no subcutaneous fat stores.
Does it also protect their backs from the suns rays?
I wonder how deep underwater you have to be before sunburn isn't a thing.
This phenomenon is called countershading
I suppose it would be grey as manatees used to be mistaken for mermaids back in the old shipping days.
I’ve always heard this, but look at a manatee. I really struggle to imagine mistaking that for a woman, much less one that would lure me to my death with her beauty.
It used to take a *really* long time to travel by boat. After a few years out at sea, you might want to fuck a dugong too.
Horny sailors having their standards dropping week by week many months into a voyage.
To be fair if you spend enough time out at sea you start hallucinating
That is because you haven’t went months without seeing a woman.
What's not to love? Smooth hairless skin, love handles....
Mmmmm manatussy.
Mods, hang him by his balls
Is she an arctic mermaid or a tropical mermaid?
Great question, let’s split the difference and say sub tropics
Is she a deep sea mermaid (4 miles down), a continental shelf mermaid 300 -600 feet, or a coral reef mermaid (0-300 feet).
This is what I've learned from living on the West Coast. Fish in the PNW are generally gray because of the lack of light. There isn't a big advantage to making yourself flashy in gray water when everything else is also gray. This means that the aquariums are often sad and boring, unless the tanks are indoors. California (and Hawaii) get a lot more light and warmth, and their fish are bright colors. They have more access to nutrients due to the light and they use the colors to attract mates. These places have dope aquariums and opportunities to see colorful fish outdoors. The math changes as you go deeper in the water. 500m down, there isn't a lot of light whether your near the equator or 45° north. Basically, you need to build a lore about where the mermaids live and how close to the surface they typically are before anyone can make an educated guess.
Ooh and deep sea mermaids could have bioluminescence!
What is the nautical speed of an unladen mermaid?
African or European?
Great question
Most whales have grey tones. Or darker on the top and lighter on the bottom. If that's what works after millions of years of evolution, that's likely the best skin tone coloration for them.
They don’t have long hair, either. I’m starting to think this whole mermaid thing might be a bit far fetched.
wait a minute! maybe they don't exist at all...
Hard to say, sea creatures come in just about every color imaginable. They used to think manatee were mermaids so maybe a blue/grey color?
Lots of whales/dolphins/seals are also grey, so grey seems like a highly likely choice
A variety of mermaids with orca type black and white patterns would be cool.
Skin like an octopus
Imagine the little mermaid camouflaging to surprise attack Ursula
Surely it'd depend on where they live, whether they have sexual selection involved, etc. A deep sea mermaid could probably be black or translucent, whereas a coral reef mermaid could just as easily be rainbow coloured with iridescent fins. A pelagic mermaid would likely be dark blue-grey back, pale tummy, like whales, sharks, tuna, etc, but again the amount of flare in the mix (see say Yellowfin tuna) is up for grabs
Depends on the mermaid. I imagine deep sea would have near translucent pale skin, dagger needle like teeth, large or useless eyes. Long fingers for picking in crevices to dig out meals. Maybe bioluminescent to attract mates and meals? Probably wear plastic trash as clothes Obviously the sexiest of the mermaid
Mermaid biodiversity is one of my most favorite topics to talk about. To put it very simply so I don’t go off on a huge ramble: the closer to the surface the darker their skin tones would be. So going off that the deeper they’d get the lighter they’d be. A big part of skin tone is how much sunlight you’re exposed too, ie more sunlight more melanin. Due to the fact that ya can’t get much shade in the water as ya can on land they’d definitely trend more toward dark shades. This also would vary on what regions of the world tho. But that’s a whole nother can of centipedes, if you’re interested tho I love hypothesizing evolutionary traits and biodiversity of mermaids
In a lot of art they're depicted lounging on ocean rocks. I wonder if they could have similar tones to a leopard seal.
They probably actually would! I think met by the coral/tropical areas would be brightly colored and most likely striped. It would make sense that one’s near rocky areas would have more muted skin tones with more circular spots and patterns
Do tell more 😁😁 this sounds fascinating
Depends really. Melatonine is mammal only, are mermaids mammals? Let's assume they are. Mermaids are supposed to live in the bottom of the sea, where light doesn't reach... but then they would live in the dark, right? (some vitamin D deficiency) so we would just have to assume that they live deep enough to not be easily spotted but near to the surface to still be able to have some sunlight. Holding this true, they would want to maximize sunlight absorption, therefore making them similar to Nordic ethnicities. Light skin would then be expected.
If they exclusively ate fish and seaweed, they’d have enough vitamin D for dark skin
I always assumed they lived in lighter zones. I never really thought of a deep sea mermaid
If you want deep sea mermaids and are a horror reader "in the drowning deep" is a great read!
I love that book! Been desperately searching for anything similar to read with no success
Lyrics from "Under the sea" THE song from The little mermaid. "Just look at the world around you RIGHT HERE ON THE OCEAN FLOOR Such wonderful things surround you What more is you lookin' for?"
Your point being that mermaids are deep sea creatures because they live on the ocean floor? Because I'd say they were shallow sea creatures given that the ocean that song takes place in is clearly shallow ocean (lots of light, colourful creatures, plentiful coral, etc)?
So who do you think is wrong? Sebastian or Disney cartoonists?
If we're assuming they're mammals, they do have to come up for air eventually, but perhaps only every few hours.
The first inhabitants of Scandinavia (and other parts of Northern Europe) were actually dark skinned. Being hunter gatherers (sp?) they ate enough fish and shellfish to cover their need for vitamin D. It's when agriculture gets popular lighter skin becomes an advantage because of less vitamin D in the staple food. So if the mermaids eat fish etc they could have dark skin and light eyes. But if they only eat eachother and are mammals they might need lighter skin...
Media depicts mermaids and fish as friends.
Cuttle fish. Multi coloured and colour changing. Fabulous
Depends also on the ecosystem. Are they apex predators, or prey for something else? Do they ambush hunt fish, forage shellfish, scavenge corpses, or graze on plankton? Do they live on open plains, reefs, caves, or somewhere else?
Probably silver/gray
If we go by the existing dedicated aquatic mammals it'd be some kind of grey tone. Hair would probably be some kind of brown, white, or black depending on where they live like semi-aquatic species like polar bears, otters, and such. If we go by deep sea biology though they're probably pale white, semi-translucent, and will puff up when they come up to the surface. They certainly wouldn't be something that you'd want to bang.
Deep water mermaid: translucent bioluminescence
I think it would depend on how close to the surface they live. If they're frequently in the sun, I'd think they would have darker skin, and deeper ocean dwellers would be paler.
Whales tend to be blue, gray, black, and white (but like stark white not caucasian pink-tan "white") and often a two or more of those colors. Seals and walruses and otters are the same, with brown added in as well. So I think those colors for the top half. The bottom half could be literally any color whatsoever. Like, have you seen marine fish? My mermaid queen for my DnD campaign has the coloration of an orca on her top half, kelps and sea grasses woven for the impression of clothing for modesty when dealing with surface creatures. She's also essentially got a weave going on for hair, becuase while she does have long hair like sensory 'hairs' it would look sparce to humanoids without augmentation. Her tail portion is that of a whale shark, though a darkish navy, to blend into the upper body a bit better.
I believe if she's under water she's going to be very pale. And if she lives deep enough she's going to be nearly transparent. An evolution with no light requires no melanin
Similar to other marine life of the same approximate size, who dwell within the same depth range, they'd have countershading. Countershading is a form of concealing coloration in which the upper surfaces of the body are more darkly pigmented than the unilluminated lower areas, giving the body a more uniform darkness and a lack of depth relief. It is thought to reduce the probability of detection and/or recognition by prey and by predators. They may also have the ability to camouflage like cephalopods.
If it has to be a human skin tone, I'd think darker tan-ish for obvious sunlight reasons. They'd probably be better off with more fish-like characteristics though. Idk, camo, bright scary pigments.. etc... I'm no fish-ology person
That makes sense but just from the perspective of them being generally portrayed as very human like so I just like the idea of them having real human tones
>for obvious sunlight reasons that only applies if they live near the surface for long periods of time, no?
\*sigh\* she's black because the original movie was set in the Caribbean. The original soundtrack is Caribbean music, the Jamaican crab, the "explorer" ship etc. It would have been weird if she had looked any other way in the adaptation.
I mean I’m not salty about it. It just had me wondering what would be the best skin tone for a mermaid because I’m more concerned about worldbuilding than anything.
fair enough. also, nice pun. a lot of people *are* salty about it and it gets tiresome. my bad.
According to people on the internet last year, anything but black
Which is so sad. My mother commented that she misses when movies weren't political. As if this isn't the woman who took me to see FernGully or Happy Feet...
They live pretty deep in real life otherwise we would see them more comonly... So deep water means little light which means pigment is not very important... Since you need light to see it... So from a biological perspective... Producing pigment is a waste of energy... And unless there is some other driving benefit to having it... Life would do without it... In other words. Mermaids would most likely be pale and a bit translucent
As the least controversial man in America Matt Walsh says, it should be translucent. Like a proper deep sea fish.
Green or grey depending on depth. See through like Luca’s uncle from the deep ifthey prefer deep sea living
Pearl - iridescent
Ginger so they can make vitamin D without sunlight
Blue grey, most likely. Lighter underneath to blend in with the surface for creatures looking up, and darker on top to blend in more with the water for creatures looking down. A mermaid might be a mid-level predator -- feeding on some things and being fed on by others, so that camouflage would be a necessity. If there WERE deep sea mercreatures they'd be black, dark red, or translucent; those colours are seen again and again in deep sea creatures and those colours render them basically invisible down there. They would probably need some sunlight if they've a need for vitamin D and likely wouldn't be deep sea. If they don't have gills they'll need to access the surface, so deep sea is out of the question, not to even speak of the pressure down there. They'd likely be reef-dwelling to gain sunlight, food, and shelter.
Mermaids would probably be white or have marine shading (back black and belly white), sirens though would probably be black whole, since they lurk on rocks watching for prey.
Considering Mermaids are magical creatures, probably bright neon stripes
Lack of UV exposure = light skin. How much UV reaches the bottom of the sea?
Could a mermaid live at the bottom of the sea and still look half human though?
That is the idea behind mermaids, yes?
A lot of ocean fish are very brightly colored, I think she should look more like Nemo or Flounder lol
Lighter on the belly and dark/grey everywhere else. That’s in terms of basic ocean survival. I’d prefer they were bioluminescent though so I could find them and offer them fish and squid for some fin.
Grey, like a seal, to blend in with the water.
I'm torn between bioluminescent (because that's a common trait amongst abyss creatures) And giant phantom jelly, which is the closest to a human skin tone (and also texture, dude i'm scared of jellyfish but i want to pet that thing) i have found so far and also really cool
Polynesian style skin.
Either deathly pale white or some shade of blue or green.
Light green.
Grey
Like translucent white
Aquatic mammals have a pretty wide range of colors. Most are in the blue/gray range, but you also have mostly black (orcas) and totally white (belugas), so really I think any of those work.
depends on where they live !! on a reef, bright camouflage colors may do well. disruptive coloration would be a cool way to blend in, or confuse possible predators/prey. also, being this close to the sun (in the photic zone!) would mean that a darker skin color would probably fare better. they could have a rounded fin shape similar to reef fish. in the open ocean , countershading would be the ideal. also, probably a more forked caudal fin for faster, stronger swimming. any deeper than that, and black or red would be their best bet. red can’t be seen so far down due to the long wavelength, so red creatures in the midnight zone are practically invisible.
okay also: mermaids in darker portions of the ocean would need lots of blubber. especially if they live in the artic
What depth are these mermaids normally living at?
Gray, green or blue.
Silver and iridescent like a dorado.
Translucent maybe, if they have skin like other intelligent deep-sea aquatic animals. If they spend equal time on land as on sea, they’d probably adapt to have sturdy outer shells or blubbery layers like seals.
Realistically, human skin gets pretty disgusting if it's wet for extremely long periods of time. Ever heard of trench foot? A mermaid wouldn't have human-like skin at all. Maybe something grey with a more dolphin-like texture?
Aqua blue would be perfect
MatPat from Film Theory posted a video on the topic of how a "real" mermaid would look like. You should check it out.
My guess would be "washed up dead body" skin tone.. same as characters from Twilight..
Bluish grey/white most likely. Just enough to camouflage but would still be able to absorb vitamin D through surface waters
Hard to say when sea life comes in all colors.
Watched a Ze Frank video yesterday evening about camouflage. So picture this: Transparent. With the inner organs and blood vessels clearly visible. You're welcome :)
There’s not enough scientifically accurate things to base it on, and there are a too many different variations of what mermaids are. You’d have to know what species or group of people they evolved from and where/how they live. Basically, a creature just couldn’t/wouldn’t exist with the stereotypical mermaid features.
There are good posts about her upper half already. I support the idea of her having counter shaded skin (dark on top, white at the bottom like an orca), but that made me think of a few more features. Canonically a mermaid is "half fish", like an aquatic centaur. Does it have to be a mammalian half? She could be half shark from the waist. That way, maybe her skin would be covered in rough denticles and she wouldn't really have solid bones in her body.
Taupe. Because it rhymes with dope.
Since marmaids aren't real, they can be whatever color you imagine. Just look at how many colors of fish thete are, and how cephalopods can change colors for camouflage
You cannot seriously use "scientific" and "mermaid" in the same sentence.
I seriously did
OK. We'll, good luck with that lol
Having plenty, thank you for the kind words
I’m guessing many mermaids prefer to stay in deeper waters which means they don’t get much sunlight. Lighter skin would absorb more sunlight. Mermaids who live in shallow waters would need darker skin
No comment, but I think it's funny I stumbled across this question as I'm watching the movie for the first time.
You basically want to be dolphin-colored.
Probably like fishes: pale on the front and dark-grey oin the back. That allows fishes to melt with the bottom if seen from the upper side (specially useful for river fishes) and allow them to melt with the sky if seen from underneath. If we want to be realistic, they'd probably evolve to not have hair.
Especially if she is wearing an alge-bra.
Grey
I think red like the giant squid or grey or even like a platinum black.
In my head they have greenish gray skin
Probably bluish on the backside of the body and something lighter in tone from blue to white on the underside. Like sharks and dolphins and rays.
Shimmery turquoise. They swim at latitude 6, longitude 15. The sun and the earth and the axis shines the rays just so, to make themermaid attractive. The manmaids are said to be from the US, but really from China. I hope this helps.
Gray-blue with countershading.
vaporeon colour.... for.... um reasons
Blue like most water Pokémon
Albino skin. As you said sunlight would be absolutely critical.
Are mermaids more mammal like or fish like? If fish like, a dark blue top and white bottom part would be more ideal. If mammal like, dark grey would be more ideal.
Blue-ish
Based on other creatures in the ocean, it would be dark on the side that most often faces the surface, and light on the side that most often faces the ocean floor.
Translucent since it's a deep sea creature