Matthew: So, I have been making mermaid tails for over 10 years. One of the major questions I get is, "Who's buying these tails?" It's mainly models, hobbyists, performers.

She crafted her first silicone mermaid tail, which she then manufactured and sold to raise money for trans children through her Purple Rainbow Tails project.

There is blood in the water at the Freedom Aquatic and Fitness Center in Manassas, Va. Angela Murray Pavlovsky, 40, emerges from the pool with knuckles raw and red, having scraped them during a ...

And their most expensive is the silicone tail, which averages $5,500. Finfolk’s silicone top sale went live in mid-June, offering 47 styles of tops ranging from $550 to $850.

Although there is no official census, the mermaids of the Washington area estimate that they have the second-highest population in the country, behind Florida.

For their custom silicone tails — which start at about $5,000 — Finfolk isn’t even taking new orders while they clear their years-long backlog of orders.

They were successful in their first project, making five silicone mermaid tails out of Bryn’s garage that summer. They discovered a demand for their tails in an industry they knew little about ...