This would be my interpretation of the protagonist from Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”. Her story is a rather tragic one, in which she surrenders her mermaid identity in pursuit of a human prince, only for things to not turn out so well for her.
I got the inspiration to draw this after a teaser trailer for Disney’s “live-action” remake of their animated adaptation came out, which caused quite a commotion on the Internet since they cast an African-American actress to play the mermaid Ariel (there are in fact West African traditions of mermaid-like creatures called Mami Wata). In all honesty, I never cared for the first Disney adaptation of Andersen’s story, nor do I have a high opinion of their recent live-action remakes in general, so I don’t have a high expectation of how the new movie will come out. Oh well, there’s always the original Andersen story, bittersweet as its ending may be.
By the way, the oysters attached to the mermaid’s tail here are a detail lifted from the original fairy tale.