Warning!! This Article Contains Semi-Adult Themes and Material, Do Not Read if you are Religious, Squeamish or Prudish.
I have contemplated getting a full sleeve tattoo, and have researched possibilities, and I recently saw this Amazing Mermaid Tattoo…
which I thought was absolutely beautiful, so I researched the topic a little more, and could not believe my eyes when it came to what people thought the meaning and symbolism of Mermaids was. There are some particularly bad examples at Mermaid Meaning and Symbolism and a real stinker at What is the meaning to a mermaid tattoo?
The meaning of the Mermaid has almost always been a universal one, one that was cited by Robert Anton Wilson in his Illuminatus Trilogy. There is an obvious sexual connotation Mermaids, but it is amazing that so few people don’t analyze the specific meaning of this Universal sexual symbol, the Mermaid is incapable of virtually all sex acts except one, oral sex or fellatio.
In an almost completely male environment, such a powerful symbol of oral sex would seem to be a strong indicator of homosexual impulse, and indeed the Mermaid Tattoo among mariners could have been a sign or emblem of homosexual sub-culture. The common explanation that the Mermaid tattoo serves as a target of the seaman’s desires is dubious and problematic, and why choose an image that cannot satisfy your sexual desires, wouldn’t a complete naked woman serve that purpose better?
One of the most famous of all Mermaids, Disney’s Ariel, of “The Little Mermaid” was adapted from a Gay Love Letter from Hans Christian Andersen to his beloved Edvard Collin. Many literary historians believe that the Mermaid of his story represented Andersen and the love he felt for this young man, a vessel for his unrequited homosexual desire, and his inability to express his love physically (ie blocked by fish physiology).
Of course, the Mermaid Tattoo became a social meme decades ago, so may no longer carry the homosexual meaning that it originally did, but it seems likely, especially under psycho-sexual iconography and analysis, that the maritime use of the Mermaid Tattoo was to indicate availability and/or enjoyment of performing oral sex.