The moral of the story is:
If you go riding with a cowboy in the bush,
make sure your steed is securely tethered.
The moral of the story is:
If you go riding with a cowboy in the bush,
make sure your steed is securely tethered.
Mythical mermen are a natural subject for AI art creators. This fantasy by hongd542 shows one haunting an ancient city that has sunk into the sea. He has a magnificent physique, a beautiful swirling body line and, it would seem, a taste for adorning himself with precious artifacts salvaged from the ruins.
I normally ponder the secrets of merman reproduction in these images, but this one gives no clues in the below stairs department. That deflected my thoughts to wondering about those upper body muscles. Perfect for luring unwary sailors onto the rocks, but how did he develop them without access to an underwater gym or even legs with which to brace himself for heavy lifts?
Actually, as is the way with AI, the origins of his lower body are betrayed by the bend in his tail at about knee height and the suggestion of a flexed foot between his tail fins. That suggests he's actually a human who has been condemned by some sorcery to roam the seas, with his legs (and everything else, I suppose) trapped inside a fish's tail, like a sheath. Is there a hint of frustration in his facial expression?
~
hongd542's art has been featured at mitchmen blog
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cyberlad - anthropoplasti - 449 |
This remarkable image is one of many fantasies by cyberlad that explores the possibilities of the distinctive, traditional genre of art used for medical, anatomical studies. It's not for everyone who has an interest in the male body, but has an invasive quality that is hard to ignore.
In this example, the artist has clad the subject in jeans which immediately suggests the condition of his body is real, not an abstract visualisation for educational purposes. He's doubled down on the scientific element by enclosing him in a glass chamber. A chamber which is also occupied by an ivy-like plant, it is vigorously entwining itself around his body.
Curiously disturbing.
I've posted quite a lot of mermen images at this blog, and many of them are preoccupied with what mermen look like. In folklore, though, mermen are more than just biological oddities. They are, by necessity, the sirens of the gay persuasion (since women have always been verboten in ships). They existed to lure sailors onto their rocks with powers of persuasion which are left largely to the imagination to this very day.
Hats off to AI then for coming up with this contrasting pair, although they are largely viewed through the (mainly, straight) prism of AI. It's produced a disconcerting combination of muscularity and boyish/classical faces with a slightly feminine cast that's not dispelled by their seduction techniques.
What great men, though, playing the role of sailors.
There's an interesting difference in seduction approaches. No 1 goes for teasing, whilst projecting femininity with flowers in the hair. This is likely to confuse the average sailor who likes his love interest to be one thing or the other, and for whom old-fashioned romance like this is a bit 'niche'. Especially for those men in 'reserved' (i.e. butch) occupations, like mariners.
I'm not sure many gay men would fall for the Marlene Dietrich technique of No 2 either. Although they usually appreciate a good Dom's sternness, they expect to be compensated with a bash at the very thing these creatures haven't got. Fishiness doesn't really help in this department either.
The lack of historical documentation of merman seduction may be because gay men don't have the same barriers to intercourse as straight men. If the first port of call is proving difficult, they just go back to their shipmates, the ones who lack the same powers of attraction, or these days they can go on Grindr (or whatever the principal on-line knocking-shop is when you read this). That applies doubly for sailors who have the benefit of shipmates all too willing to live up to the promiscuous stereotype and go foraging, en-masse, in foreign climes. You didn't thing 'a girl in every port' was a literal, uni-gender truth, did you?
Images by RomanAI