When Rio de Janeiro resident Davi Moreira goes to Brazil’s famous Ipanema beach, he always has a splashingly good time.
The 22-year-old is a wannabe merman who loves resting on the rocks by the sea as he wears one of five colorful mermaid tails.
“It’s a lifestyle, a way of expressing my love and respect for the sea and this encounter between two worlds. When I’m in the water I feel like another person,” he told Agence France-Presse as he leisured on rocks with his handmade tail glittering in the sun.
Moreira takes his merman passion very “sea-riously.” Besides sporting a “Little Mermaid” tattoo on his body, his home is chock-full of Ariel-themed memorabilia including cups, shirts, dolls and even a bedcover featuring the red-headed mermaid.
Merman Moreira attracts waves of attention from fellow mermaid “afish-cianados,” but also some insults from a few crabs.
“People laugh at me because I am different, but I laugh back because they are all the same,” he said. “I’m not trying to escape reality. I know perfectly well how to deal with adult life. But this makes me happy and I’m not causing anyone any harm.”
Moreira’s lifestyle choice gets approval from at least one slightly envious local, an elderly woman in the video above.
“I think that if I would have had a fancy dress like that when I was a child, it would have been a dream,” she said.
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