Monster Romance Field Guide: Tentacles (2nd ed.)

Historical Kink and Queer Possibilities, the Allure of the Tentacle

Jun 16, 2025

Notes: This is an edited and updated version of this post, originally published in June 2023. I also have a lot to say about this because while I love me some horns and claws, I am Team Tentacle 🐙. So, there are a lot of puns in here. I have no shame and no dignity. Feel free to count and tell me how many you got. Also, give me your tentacle recs!

TL;DR: Tentacles in Monster Romance

Historical, kinky, and wildly versatile
Facilitates deep exploration into power play, surrender, and sexual excess outside of human norms
Works across multiple genders, sexualities, and subgenres (aquatic, alien, demon, etc)

*The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife by Hokusai, Japan, 1814, woodblock*

Tentacles, a time-tested kink

Is there a more enduring erotic monster trope than tentacles? Long before monster romance reached the pages of indie romance, the idea of being entangled, penetrated, or overpowered by something with many limbs had already burrowed deep into our collective imagination.

Let’s take a look at The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, the iconic 1814 woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai. In it, a woman lies in rapture, embraced by two octopi, one engaged in what we can safely call enthusiastic cunnilingus. This famous piece isn’t merely shocking erotica. It is proof that the allure of tentacles isn’t some new perversion born of the Internet. It’s historical. It’s cross-cultural. And it’s penetrating.

Why Tentacles Work

Tentacles are the Swiss Army knives of monster anatomy; versatile, efficient, and capable of unlocking a whole lot of pleasure. Here’s a tiny list of what they can do for an erotic romance story:

Multiple penetration.
Built-in bondage.
Strength, flexibility, and total-body sensual control.

They’re often paired with story characters who are also sea monsters. Think krakens. But authors have found ways to work tentacles into aliens, demons, and just general supernatural beings, too. If your shadow daddy isn’t using those finger-like shadows to their full erotic potential, what are we even doing here?

Importantly, tentacles appeal to the freedom many monster romance readers crave whether it is emotional, sexual, or anatomical. Why chain ourselves to heteronormative scripts when we could be wrapped in tentacles and go for a dip in the ocean? We’re here to have fun, plain and simple.

Tentacled monsters can give or receive, dominate or be overwhelmed. As seen in Surrendering to Scylla by Wren K. Morris, even a female sea monster gets her turn as the aggressor.

The mechanics of tentacles are deliciously versatile. That flexibility opens up queerer, kinkier story possibilities.

Where Tentacles Work

Darling It’s Better Down Where It’s Wetter

Aquatic monsters are the most obvious home for tentacle tropes. They come pre-loaded with narrative excuses to get everyone naked, wet, and pinned. Consider Stalked by the Kraken by Lillian Lark, where the Kraken MMC uses his tentacles not only for pleasure, but for sensual exhibitionism as he displays and dominates his mate in her family bathhouse. It’s domination with flair and showmanship with slippery precision.

Tentacles can symbolize surrender as well as control regardless of the setting. That duality gives authors room to explore power exchange in nuanced or over-the-top ways, depending on the tone. In The Kraken’s Sacrifice by Katee Robert, the tentacles serve both as tools of possession and protectiveness.

From the Shadows

Tentacles aren’t just for sea creatures. In darker, drier worlds with shadowy forests and mysterious settings, they show up attached to demons, spirits, and beings beyond comprehension. This is where the “shadow daddy” gets a trope upgrade.

Tentacled demons and similar otherworldly bearings extend this theme beyond the sea. Here, tentacles appear in dry, dark settings. It is less about water, more about otherworldly intrigue and unique pleasure.

I love looking to books like Opal Reyne’s Duskwalker Brides series and C. M. Nascosta’s Tea for Two here. Reyne took the fun concept of the cock and upgraded it with a ring of tentacles around it. Nascosta skipped the dick and posed to readers what it might feel like to be pleasured by a sentient being who can shape themselves into about anything in the dark. That is the point though where concepts about gothic and dark paranormal concepts merge with tentacles. The results are enthralling.

Monster Eroticism Beyond the Norm

Tentacles, at their core, defy typical human sexual limitations by just being not human at all. They sidestep taboos, upend roles, and offer a playground for readers and writers who want eroticism that feels unbound.

And, let’s be honest. They’re just fun. Whether you’re reading for kink, curiosity, or chaos, tentacles offer an audacious escape from the mundane.