Long, long post about tentacle porn
NOTE: Most of the octopus-related details contained herein are canon to real life, because I am a cephalopod geek and this is what I want to do with my life. The exception is the slime, which is there for lube purposes because for an octopus, drying out is a really bad idea and so slime helps facilitate keep fragile tentacle skin wet. Real cephalopods aren't slimy.
^The notes I attach to any tentacle pron I write. Because it's really, really off putting to me that no one else cares about these things. Yes, I know, asking for factual accuracy in fanfic is a stretch. But here's a few things that are really, really interesting and could be great fun for smut;
- Octopus tentacles are chemotactile - that is, they taste what they touch.
- Octopus (and cuttlefish) skin is covered in chromataphores, or color cells, that can be manipulated to change the skin's color. There's three general kinds - general chromataphores, which contain normal pigments (in most species, red, orange, or brown); white leucophores; and iridophores, which refract light into iridescent colors such as the blue ringed seen on a blue ringed octopus.
- They can also change the shape and texture of their skin, even able to cause protrusions that help the animal to look like a hunk of rough kelp.
- Each tentacle has a partial brain that controls its exact movements; the "main" brain only gives out general instructions. If kept alive somehow, a cut-off tentacle will continue to move about on its own because of this.
- And those suckers are strong, pun intended. Some species have been found to be able to hold over twenty times their own weight with a single sucker; multiply that by the number of suckers on each arm, then by eight arms, and you see why octopus wrestling is dangerous. Tentacles = muscle, nerves, more muscle.
- Despite their strength, their skin is rather soft and fragile. Watch a video of an octopus, and the tentacles look more like a solid core with loose skin flapping around than a single coherent limb (although note - some species have webbing between their tentacles which contributes to this). I've seen the feeling described as like the inside of a human's cheek. Stick your finger in your mouth - doesn't seem like it'd be difficult to break, does it?
- Squid suckers have hooks on them, some of which are rather nasty. Fun for all the masochists - not so much for anyone else. (Regular suckers would probably leave some massive hickies, though.)
- Most cephalopods, despite being mollusks, have little to no shell, and what they do have is internalized (exceptionexception: nautiloids). Octopodes have no shell at all, only hardened skin forming a beak on their underside. This means that they can squeeze into very, very small places, you take my meaning?
- Octopodes have pupils that are horizontal slits, regardless of the angle the creature's head is at. They are apparently colorblind.
So that has been your lesson in octopus geekery for the day. (And yes, octopodes is the proper plural, not that I expect anyone to use it.)
Relatedly, I'd love to see the "tentacle rape" trope drop out. I don't like noncon, it squicks me majorly, and I'd really like to be able to talk to someone about it without them going "Lolol tentacle rape" "how's them tentacle monsters?" every single bloody time. Can we please get some consensual tentacle smut up in here please?