#merjohn

Foxydodo reference:

First, as you can see, his tail is blue. This color made sense to me because it’s commonly associated with the character, who’s wearing a blue shirt in the game. I improvised what I thought looked pretty for the fins and didn’t really follow a logic, except that I wanted sharp shapes because they simultaneously evoke danger and refinement to me, and that suits John. I didn’t draw his teeth, but I picture him with pointy canines.

I gave him more tattoos on his upper arms and back, but it felt weird keeping all of his other original ones because most have religious significance and represent land/human beings or objects. I still wanted the shapes and general layout to look similar but decided to replace the majority of the designs with things and creatures merpeople could logically encounter in the ocean. The Capricorn is probably an exception, but since it’s the goat equivalent of a mermaid, I thought it was cute. And, who knows, maybe they’re a thing in this universe!

There are also a few visuals I didn’t change (or almost). For example, I thought the anchor worked, but not the snake or the pair of scales, so they became a chain. The crescent moon is still there too because merpeople can see the sky when they come to the surface. The word “EDEN” remained on his fingers because I didn’t know what else to write, honestly, and I suppose it can make sense and be the name of his community or something. On the other hand (literally), “GATE” didn’t feel right, and neither did the seven sins in Latin. The seven seas, however, worked very well, so I wrote their Latin name on his left hand. In this language, the word for “sea” is mare, and since it looks a little like “gate”, it seemed perfect to replace the word!

I didn’t know what to write instead of “SLOTH” so I decided the scar on his chest would become gills, and he also has some on the sides of his ribcage. For the big SLOTH tattoo on his right arm, I hesitated for a while until I randomly remembered that, in French, there’s only a minor difference between the words “sinner” (pécheur) and “fisherman” (pêcheur). That’s funny when cultists call you a sinner while you’re busy fishing in the game, but I also thought that, while human John doesn’t like sinners, merman John could see fishermen as the bad guys.

The problem is the pun doesn’t work in English because the words aren’t the same at all, and I didn’t want to write it in French; I needed a more universal language. John already had tattoos in Latin and it seemed like the best option, so I looked up “sinner” and “fisherman” in this language and found that, although the words are not as similar as they are in French, they’re still pretty close: peccator and piscator.

What I eventually decided to write on his arm is the sentence “Sacrificemus omnes peccatores” which, if I’m not mistaken and online translators are accurate, is how you would say, “Let us sacrifice all sinners” in Latin… except the word peccatores is partially crossed out to become piscatores instead, turning the sentence into “Let us sacrifice all fishermen”. The idea of sacrifice is a tribute to Jacob, and I added a trident because merfolk could see it as a prestigious, almost holy weapon in this AU. After all, it’s one of the symbols of Poseidon, God of the Sea.

As for his EG stub, I replaced it with a black pearl dangle earring. I imagine it was human-made, that its original owner lost it, that John found it somewhere in the ocean, and that he decided to keep it. He probably considers that pearls belong in the ocean and that they shouldn’t be owned by humans, so I suppose wearing this earring is a way for him to reclaim what he believes he, as a sea creature, rightfully owns.

So yeah, ideas just keep popping up, and even though I don’t know if I’ll develop this AU further, it feels like it’s practically building itself at this point!

Anyway, if you need a reminder of what John’s tattoos look like in canon, you can find a detailed description and the original texture sheet in my posts about his evolution (part 1 and 2) and there are more pictures of them “in context” on his arms here, here, or here, for example.

Finally, here’s the complete list of what I turned each of human John’s tattoos into:

Hands

Right hand:

E-D-E-N → (unchanged)

Eye → Cowrie shell

Mouth → Volute (whelk) shell

Hand → Scallop shell

Heart → Clam shell

Star and jewels → Seastar with limpet shells

Number seven in tally marks → Fishbone

Pair of scales (one half) → Trident (one half)

Left hand:

G-A-T-E → M-A-R-E (“sea” in Latin)

Foot → Cone shell

Keyhole → Tower shell

Waves → Moon shell

Number seven in tally marks → Tusk shell

Seven sins in Latin (Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Tristitia, Ira, Invidia, Superbia) → Seven seas in Latin (Persicum, Caspium, Erythraeum, Mediterraneum, Rubrum, Scythicum, Adriaticum)

Revolver → Merfolk weapon (knife)

Pair of scales (one half) → Trident (one half)

Forearms:

Right forearm:

Seven flames → Seven jellyfishes

Fly → Grimpoteuthis (a.k.a. Dumbo octopus)

Goat → Capricorn

Sword → Eel

SLOTH → “Sacrificemus omnes pIScatores” and a trident

Peacock feather → Pearl oyster

Anchor with a snake and a pair of scales → Anchor with a chain

Crescent moon → (unchanged)

Flaming horseshoe → Shark jaw

Left forearm:

Snake → Sea snake

Eagle → Seahorses

Ax → Crab claw

Cross → Fish hook

Plane pattern → Fish scales pattern

Chair with “sit down & we talk” → Whale and its baby

Holy figure with a sickle (and wheat) → Clothed human skeleton (fisherman) holding a harpoon and tangled in its rope

Young angel with a dove in a wreath → Young mermaid with a sea turtle in a seaweed wreath

Bird → Flying fish

“EG” cross with alpha (A) and omega (ω) → Brittle star

Upper arms & back

Upper right arm:

(nothing) → Giant squid attacking a boat

(nothing) → Coral branch

Upper left arm: (nothing) → Octopus

Back: (nothing) → Manta ray