A Schlong Time Ago: How Long Have We Been Into Tentacles?

So here's what happened. One day I walked into work and saw on the shelf none other than the Alien Nation Octopod, and I was filled with the sudden unshakeable desire to abandon all the other blog post drafts I had in favour of researching how long humanity has been into tentacles, and now here we are. So let's dive in (pun intended).

Like many fun things, the genre of tentacle erotica originated in Japan, with some of the earliest recorded depictions being woodblock prints from the late 18th century. Famous works include Kitao Shigemasa's Programme of Erotic Noh Plays (1781) and Shunshō Katsukawa's Lust of Many Women on One Thousand Nights (1786). Arguably the most well known example is from 1814 known in English  asThe Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. This particular work depicts the popular folk story of the female abalone diver Tamatori, who steals a jewel from the Dragon King and is subsequently pursued by his sea-creature minions. The text surrounding the art clarifies that this was a mutually gratifying experience for both woman and octopus. (a sentence I never thought I would write)

Contemporary tentacle erotica in Japan can be associated with censorship laws in the Meiji period (1868-1912), and the influence of Western Victorian Era principles. Laws enforced in Japan throughout the early to mid 20th century limited pornography significantly, but interspecies/fantasy pornography managed to avoid these censorship laws on a technicality. The laws and policies prohibited the depiction of penetration with a penis, but said nothing of penis-like appendages. 

In 1985 we saw the first of many animes/hentai featuring spicy times with tentacles with Dream Hunter Rem. Although this particular film was re released with all the sexy scenes taken out. The genre would continue steadily in both anime and manga over the decades, in Japan as well as internationally. It's also worth noting that often (but not always) a big aspect of this genre is a distinct lack of consent, so if this blog has made you curious to track down some hentai, keep that in mind.

Live action examples exist, but are much less common. The most popular form of sexy-tentacle media that I have come across in my time on the internet (besides hentai/manga) is in written erotica, which appears to have really shot up in popularity in recent years due to the prevalence of “BookTok”. Kindle Unlimited has heaps of titles that fall into the monster-romance genre, where you can read about all manner of aliens and krakens with every configuration of tentacles you could ever want. (Personally my fav is The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, which I can't even say I read for research, its just really good. It was for sure in my top five books that I read last year)

This brings us back to the wonderful new products available at Funtasia, our range of “creature cocks”which lets you explore fun new shapes and textures that relate to all manner of fantasies, including of course; tentacles. So go forth and enjoy those suckers! (again pun intended)

Funtasia Sexpert and Calamari Enjoyer

Verin Sampson