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UPDATED BODY, LUNGS, MUSCLES, AND FLUKE 1/6/2015

 

 

   I will link a website here that will correlate with this information, but I will try my best to explain in detail! Each body part will be ordered from physical human appearance shifting to actual mermaid mods.

 

Body - Mermaids and mermen have fit, muscular lean bodies. They are generally 4' 9" - 5' 9" tall/long in both female and male, but the males are generally taller/longer. If you want to become a mermaid, you should fit the criteria of a healthy (depends on your skinny standards of your shape) body (except for the height 'cause it varies), benefiting you while shifting. 

 

Hair - This is blantantly obvious, but here's the deal. Like I mentioned in my M-shifting page, your hair should be clean and healthy. It doesn't matter have to be 100% healthy because all our bodies are special. Like what mermaids have been characterized as, these mers really look after their hair because A.) it's for looks (as humans do, too) and B.) to help them in the wild. It's like the whiskers of a cat. Also, if you are able to, keep you hair as long as you want, but if you can't control your hair health to a point, than it's alright.

 

   The problem is, I'm not so sure if the long-term prescence of salt water will make your hair fall out, so I'm going to research that! It also makes sense because your hair will not obstruct your swimming on one hand. 

 

Eyes - Naturally, humans can't see clearly underwater because our eyes have adapted to see above land. As promised, I've looked it up! So humans do have a third eyelid like alligators, but here's the bad news! The function of this eyelid, called the plica semilunaris, is to of course protect the eye from salt irritation, but because we've evolved differently and have lived on land for so long, we've stopped using them. If you want to know where this is, look and see the two pink corners of your eyes close to your nose bridge. Yep, they're just there and not functional anymore. So what I suggest is that you have to get used to the salt concentration of the water like Mermaid Kariel. She said that the salt burns her eyes but she's used to it. If you can't seem to get used to it, wear goggles! If you have Dry Eyes like me, definitely wear goggles, but you can just carry it with you in order to get used to the salt.

 

Nails - Depending on the food type, some mermaids will generally have long nails for hunting. If you are in a pod and you've taken a job as a healer, gatherer, etc, there's no need for longer nails. 

 

Ears - Some people are thinking of shifting fins on their ears. I don't think that's important. But, keep in mind to preserve your hearing as your shifting. That's another important factor for becoming an underwater swimmer.

 

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Gills - In my Weebly blog, I've mentioned in the evidence section there is a documentary that used to play on PBS, and it introduced a woman who had a small defect in her ear - a gill. If you haven't read it, basically fish and people are still similar despite appearances. Thing is, the way we evolved now deems no chance for forming gills near the ears. Sadly, gill shifting is impossible because of our anatomy now. 

 

Lungs - Honestly, you only partially "shift" for this because you can train yourself to hold your breath longer (P.S. No need to "fuse" your lungs together). For instance, over a time period of available visits to the rec pool, I increased my holding time from 40 seconds to 55! It doesn't sound drastic, but it made such a huge impact! You've heard of those who can last up to 4 minutes such as Mermaid Kariel and Merman Eric? How about Stig Severinsen who can last up to 20 minutes anywhere, even in cold water?! I suggest you look him up, he's pretty cool! See, you don't necessarily shift for larger lungs, but just train yourself to hold your breath longer. Growing your lung capacity is the best choice because you can model yourself after a dolphin since we are both mammals.

 

Muscles - No shifting involved, just proper nutrition and exercise! You need to keep lean or sturdy muscles in order to swim great distances (a couple of feet, miles, depends on you), but still keep some fat on you. 

 

Scales - When people think of mermaids, they literally take the bottom half of a mermad as a literal fish! Well it's not! I personally believe that the "scales" are just hardened layers of skin either forming from the epidermis or the dermis. Again, I will look this up.

 

Fluke - All mermaid types have a strong fluke, and this is mandatory. This information will come straight from my head: I purchased a Finis Monofin a few months ago (the rectangular one) and discovered that it was thick around the middle section. I will add a diagram of a foot here to explain better. That's basically the "thickest part" of your fluke. Your toes will fan out but the result won't exactly be translucent, flowing fins. I kinda imagine them as bat wings, how the skin between the fingers stretch but the bones are still visible. The skin between your toes will be similar to that I believe. 

 

   The hard part is explaining what happens to the heels while transforming. Honestly I have no clue up to this point, but looking at KissingMidnight's photo (which is probably not a reliable source but what else?), the balls of the feet fuse together, but I can guess according to our man-made monofins that our heels won't entirely disappear. They'll be like stobby knobs.