Knowing that it needed a female host, then how could it have merged with a male host?

He had a secret.

it didn't 'merge' with Ian Nottingham...

i can't remember the exact specifics of it, but it had something to do with the 'mystical tattoo's' that both Ian Nottingham and Ken Irons have on their arms, as both of these men have managed to wield the Witchblade, even for short periods of time.

M

It's because Irons had Ian's body put through some kind of experiment which enabled him to wield the Witchblade.

Yep Irons put those blue lines/circles/thingies on Ian's arm and said it would let him control the witchblade. Then there was something about a project odin where they fused his adult DNA with a something else (got cut off before the guy finished his sentence) which might have something to do with it also.

because he's just that damn cool!

M

if the witchblade was made for guys in the firstplace they might as well call it the "Querblade"

wow no one gets that joke

maybe he has klinefelters syndrome

Iam Nothing wielded the witchblade because of those tatoos, yep and the process he underwent to learn to absorb and channel mystical energy. The rest was his hardcore displined badassness

Nottingham has the runestoneesque tatoos that allowed him to wield the witchblade.  Sarah would have taken the power back during family ties, but she rejected the witchblade and it stuck with nottingham.  Too bad he was too mentally weak to control it.

" @N7_Normandy:  the witchblade is said to destroy any person attempting to wield it that the artifact hasn't chosen. That he was able to use it, even in the state he was proves he's a badass and the opposite of weak. "