What should a mermaid look like? The image I grew up with was human from the waist up with a flexible fishtail covered in green scales from the waist down. I mainly saw this in comic books such as Superman's college girlfriend Lora Lemaris. Disney's Little Mermaid also used this model.
There are a lot of questions here. I'm not sure when green scales became the standard. Fish come in all colors but silver seems to be most common. I suspect that a comic book colorist decided that green looked good and used it. That happened with the Hulk - he stared out gray but marvel's cheap printing process had problems with that color so he was switched to green in the second issue.
The underlying structure of the tail is a question. It is usually shown with a horizontal fluke. That implies that under the scales the mermaid is closer to a dolphin or seal than a fish. It also has a bearing on how the mermaid swims. A horizontal fluke means an up and down motion. A vertical fluke means a back and forth one.
Live action mermaids have to make allowances for the human legs inside the tail. This can be minimized by extending the length of the tail. Splash, H2O: Just Add Water, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 all did this.
In contrast, many modern paintings of mermaids show the tail bending where the knees would be. Some modern paintings also show well-developed buttocks which only make sense if there are fused legs inside the tail.
Most fish have additional fins. Should mermaids? Should their upper half be totally human or should they have some fish characteristics like fins on the spine or arms? How is this reconciled with a horizontal fluke?
Should their eyes look human or should they be enlarged in order to see in the murky depths?
I've asked before but how do they breath? Gills are the used most often. Would a mermaid have gills in her neck or chest?
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