MELISSA MERMIN
MELISSA MERMIN
Melissa Mermin is a digital media artist, writer, sexuality educator and sex worker rights advocate.
She started her professional photography career in 1996 shooting weddings and events in a candid, documentary style. Many of her images are published in books, wedding magazines and newspapers over her 25-year career.
As the digital age exploded, her photography career cooled and she battled several years of depression and personal struggles. Going into the darkness turned on the light of deep introspection and healing. She attended workshops on love, intimacy and sexuality. After receiving her certification as a somatic sex educator, she became a sexuality coach and a badass shame slayer. She re-discovered her passion as an artist and started photographing sensuality in the boudoir, learning the art of documentary filmmaking and telling her story.
She is an activist for LGBTQ, BIPOC sex worker rights, She has participated in public speaking at events and conferences on the misinformation and conflation of sex trafficking and sex work.
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Other fun facts about Melissa
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Rides a bicycle nearly every day
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Hasn't owned a car in 12 years
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Still not on Instagram
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Dirt or paint habitually under fingernails
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Obsessed with home renovation shows
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Most creative ideas between midnight and 3am
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Switches between a Boston or New York accent when tipsy
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Starting to accept her gray hair
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Mantra for 2022: Reveal All Fear Nothing
She currently lives in Portland, Oregon with a feral cat living rent-free in the backyard and her partner, who's home in the kitchen making fish tacos and pumpkin curry. She woke up at age 42, learned the secret to the universe and is now learning how to exhale and stretch.
