Why is there a woman in a shark costume in Charlotte’s dating pool?

There’s a single 28-year-old shark trolling the waters of Tinder. Her tagline? “Swipe right for left shark.”

Earlier this summer, Caitie Bailey — a first time dating app user — started dressing as Left Shark (of Super Bowl fame) and dubbed herself Shark and the City on Tinder. Since she started on May 25, she’s gone on 18 dates in two months, two of which she showed up dressed as a shark. Her fishy persona is also taking a bite out of social media and local Charlotte events.

I had a chance to catch her and learned how she’s turning Charlotte’s social scene on its fin.

How did you get started?

Since I already had the costume because of my brother’s punch party [on December 18], I was like, man, it would be so funny to be a Left Shark on Tinder because they have the whole swipe left swipe right thing. Then my friend got a really nice camera through work and we [took] all these great photos for Tinder so everything looks legit and we had the tagline, “Swipe right for Left Shark.”

I have never done anything on a dating app before and I was single, so it was like, well, if I’m going to be on a dating app, I might as well do it my way, which would be something ridiculous.

You never used any dating apps before this?

No, this is the first time. It’s crazy. Most of my adult life [I’ve heard] from different outlets that a large percentage of men aren’t really interested in dating funny girls. I’ve [had] a lot of guy friends but not a lot of people that are necessarily more attracted to me because I’ll wear a hot dog costume to work on National Hot Dog Day. It was a good way to weed any people who are not interested in dating a ridiculous girl like me.

Once you were swiping on Tinder, what was the conversation like with prospective dates?

I don’t think any conversation was awkward to start out with because it was always related to a shark…I swiped until you can swipe no more and I was still saying no to people, but the first night I kept going and over the next two weeks I had hundreds of matches and 40 active conversations. [They] were all ridiculous ocean shark puns, talking about sushi dates, [asking] if they were a pectoral or dorsal man.

The gif keyboard saved me a few times. If people got inappropriate, I would send a gif of a shark eating someone.

Do you wear the shark costume on the dates?

I only wore it on like two. It was way too hot most of the time, but I also wanted to see how it would go with meeting me as the real person. There were people interested to get to know me, so when it got to the point of them wanting to met me in person, it felt like the shark might be pushing them away.

Have any of these dates made it to the second date?

Only two out of 18 dates [since May 25] have made it to a second date. It was still nice getting to know new people and realizing how many different people are not in my circle of friends. Most of them either led to friendship or that was kind of it. I also have never done the casual dating thing.

Are you saying there are plenty of fish in the sea?

Yeah! Exactly. A friend was trying to decide if she should break up with her boyfriend and I was like, I can tell you from this situation, there are so many people out there. There are way more people in the world – and fish, as they say – than you think.

What’s your ultimate personal or professional goal with Shark and the City?

Right now this is a funny thing. [I’ve been] more in tune with my art roots doing this and having people react to it. If it leads to something that helps me with my art career, that would be amazing.

Is this shark ready to settle down?

I don’t know, we’ll see. There are plenty of open waters out there.

Catch Shark and the City this and next week.

Thursday, July 21: Phillips Place for the 4:40 p.m. showing of “The Shallows.”

Monday, July 25: Gallery Twenty-Two Figure Drawing Class, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Free to attend.

Follow her on Instagram and Facebook using the hashtags #sharkandthecity and a #feedingfriendzy.

Photo: Joanne Spataro

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Why is there a woman in a shark costume in Charlotte’s dating pool?."