Marine Creates Humorous Mermaid Photo Shoot To Entertain Friends

A U.S. Marine has decided to don a magical blue mermaid tail in a recent photo shoot. He did so in order to give his friends overseas a good laugh, according to FOX 13.

The photo shoot was done by Jacqueline Elliot, a photographer with Magical Memories Photography in Trinity, Florida, who usually does adorable photo shoots with kids. While still adorable, this photo shoot, was a surprising request. However, the photographer took it in stride and created photography magic.

Beau Shepherd is the U.S. Marine in question and approached Elliot because his daughter goes to the same school as Elliot’s daughter, according to WDRB.

“He’s a Marine, dad, and brother and wanted to send it to his buddies and family to make them laugh, overseas and here at home,” Elliot told FOX 13.

Shepherd also further explained the photo shoot and why he chose a glorious mermaid tail.

“Well my job in the Marines is amphibious, as in we move from sea to land, so I wanted to include that,” Shepherd told WDRB.

Some of the images also include crayons, which seems a little odd at first, but Shepherd explains that these props are still a part of the humor. Apparently, in the Marines, other branches joke about the amphibious division being “crayon eaters.”

As for Shepherd’s family, his daughter thinks that seeing her dad as a mermaid — or merman — is “cool” and she is glad that she will always have a picture of her dad depicted in this manner. Shepard’s wife also apparently got a “good laugh” from her husband’s exploits with a mermaid’s tail.

But, all along, it was Shepard’s intent to entertain people with his photo shoot.

Mermaid photo shoot lets US Marine show his fun side https://t.co/N9o3dl2Pgb #Semperfi #oorah @usmarines pic.twitter.com/8seA3ONIcr

— WDRB News (@WDRBNews) June 7, 2019

However, the Marine is not the first man to decide to don a scaly tail for a photo shoot. According to the Daily Star, there are at least two other mermen out there that regularly don tails for their Instagram followers.

Merman Marino, as he is known on his Instagram account, is from Iowa and has always had a fascination with mermaids. However, it wasn’t until he was much older that he decided to live out his childhood fantasy.

“I have been drawn to the mysticism and folklore of mermaids since I was a child,” Marino, 30, said. “Growing up, Disney’s The Little Mermaid was an absolute favorite of mine.”

Merman Chris, as his Instagram lists him, is a 25-year-old from Germany who was also fixated with The Little Mermaid as a child. In fact, Chris watched it so often that it caused his parents to be “pretty annoyed” with the daily screenings.

As for what it’s like working with a mermaid’s — or merman’s — tail while in the water, Chris points out that one has to be very athletic to do so.

“You need to be athletic,” Merman Chris explained to the Daily Star.

“The tails I’m working with weigh up to 50 lbs, when wet. You need to be a good swimmer and have to learn breath-holding techniques. You need to build general strength in your upper body and lower back to be able to swim gracefully … Also looking nice underwater is not always easy.”