Indie Squid Kid

The Tumblr blog community is a bountiful source of awesome images of all kinds. However, it is all too common that source or artist attribution is left out of the original post. Take this vintage illustration of Vampyroteuthis infernalis. I’m pretty sure it’s from a public domain book of zoological drawings, and I’ve possibly even posted something from that same source before. But I don’t really know. What I do know is that Vampyroteuthis has never been creepier. One could almost believe that it truly is a vampire squid!

(Via Monster Made of Eyes)

Laughing Squid is more than just a web host, it is also on the front lines of culture and art. Their tentacles touch many parts of the Internet, including Tumblr. Here is a sampling of some recent cool content from http://links.laughingsquid.com:

Octopus Sculpture Made Out of Typewriter Parts

Squid Costume

We all sleep in a yellow submarine. (Photo by lane becker)

Tentacle Pot Pie

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea 3D Book Cover by Jim Tierney

Laughing Squid 15th Anniversary Poster by Josh Ellingson

I’m starting to think there might be an Octopus Day curse, at least as far as this blog is concerned. As I write this, it is 11:11 (make a wish!), so it still counts, right? (Of course, who knows what time it will be when I finally click “Publish.”)

One of my goals for this blog is to maintain the most comprehensive list of cephalopod-focused (or at lest ceph-friendly) blogs possible. Over the past year, I’ve encountered a veritable shoal of Tumblr blogs dedicated to our tentacled friends, and here are three must-subscribes for any octopus enthusiast. I’ve included a sampling of recent content from each blog, and you can click on the images to see the original posts.

1. Fauna: http://rhamphotheca.tumblr.com

White Spotted Octopus (Octopus macropus)

Coconut Octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus)

Angel Octopus (Velodona togata)

Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena sp.)

2. [Octopoda]: http://octopoda.tumblr.com

Mimic Octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus)

Augustus A. Gould, Mollusca and Shells, 1856, Argonauta geniculata; Octopus megalocyathus

"icarus"

"Underdog" by Devin McGrath

3. Octopus Watch: http://octopuswatch.tumblr.com

"The Sea"

steampunk octopus

ninja octopus

(via Cephalolove, via doomiedoom)

Here are two surreal Star Wars/octopus mashups that were posted recently at Distracted by Star Wars, one of my favorite Tumblr sites.

Star Wars and cephalopods, two great tastes that taste great together!

"The Disorder is Me" ©Rubens Cantuni

See more by this artist at TokyoCandies.com.

"Octotrooper" ©Aaron Jasinski

Visit this artist at deviantArt for Octo-Fett, Octo-Vader, and more!

I have to admit that Tumblr fascinates and confounds me. I am fascinated because I love the idea of random, single-topic websites. (A big surprise, I know!) I am confounded because it seems to function just differently enough from the types of blogging platforms to which I am accustomed, that I am never quite certain where I am or what I am supposed to do when I visit a Tumblr site.

Both of these shirts came to my attention via your daily octopus, but, as seems to be the local custom, these were being reposted from other Tumblr sites. Sometimes one can follow the thread back to an original source, but sometimes, as with the first shirt below, it remains a mystery.

I am told this shirt was originally posted on Cephalolove (the newest addition to the ISK Squid Roll!→), but I’ve paged back a bit and haven’t found it yet. If I ever figure out the origin of this shirt, I will, of course, post an update.

This shirt is by Italian clothing company VNGRD.

€25 at the Unotre Store.

Also available in black and gray (and purple and white, apparently) and as a hoodie.