The Mermaid Day Parade in Coney Island is a yearly tradition, known for vast crowds, extravagant sea-themed outfits, merry times, and partial nudity. Brooklyn’s Amy Sussman comes out every year. She’s recently started to catch these parade specimens against a backdrop instead of crowd shots, so you can just how fabulous and magical they really are in full detail — grinning, dripping in glitter, shimmering in aqua, and strutting in their star fish pasties, beaded eye-patches, and mermaid/sailor/pirate/sea creature gear. Sussman is a New York City Press corp member and contributes regularly to the Associated Press, Getty Images, Corbis and the Wall Street Journal. This is just one of her New York stories. Come and “sea.”

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