Put a tentacle on it: 7 octopodes you need in your home

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This week I’ve seen octopodes making a surge in popularity online, which is totally fine with me, cause I’ve been a long-time fan of cephalopods. I think every house could benefit from the grace and creepiness of an octopus.

octopus biology print The Octopus Biology print has these tentacled invertebrates drifting across the page.

Octopus Dish ClothThis octopus dish towel is squeezing my heart in its be-tentacled grasp.

Umbra Octopus Ring HolderYou can trust this octopus to keep hold of ALL your rings.

octopus pillowAdd this accent pillow to your living room or your bedroom. Either way, it’ll make a striking statement in black and white and tentacles.

71Ek2njNXOL._SL1000_No better place for octopodes than in your shower, right? Of course, you could always make your own squid shower curtain too!

Maritime Octopus TrayThis octopus tray is super stylish, and super good at holding things.

Octopus Creature CupSurprise your guests with a friendly octopus swimming at the bottom of the tea. (Get it?)

What are YOUR favorite ways of decorating with octopodes?

Comments on Put a tentacle on it: 7 octopodes you need in your home

  1. Oh man, I hate to be this girl, but…

    no, I don’t. I’m gonna do it.

    The correct plural of octopus is not octopi, it’s octopuses, because the root of octopus is Greek, and not Latin. Anglicized Greek uses the “es” plural in cases like this. This plural is mostly correct, and people will still know what you’re talking about.

    And then I see you’ve used the REALLY correct plural in the text, which is octopodes, which I congratulate you for. Most Americans pronounce ok-toe-poe-ds, but I once heard an actual greek person pronounce it “ok-top-oh-dees”, which is just so much fun to say.

    How do I know? Why do I care? I work at an aquarium and I get to feed one of these FREAKING AMAZING ANIMALS on a regular basis! So please pardon my pedantic nature on this one, it’s a knee jerk response thing.

    Octo-love,

    Kate

    • And because you sat through that, here are some octopus fun facts:

      Octopuses have three hearts.

      Octopuses have copper based blood.

      Octopuses can taste everything in their environment through sensory organs on their suction cups.

      Octopuses can change the color of their skin instantaneously using two types of pigmented cells called chromatophores and iridiphores.

      An octopus can fit through anything it’s beak can fit through, because it is the only hard part of it’s body. Youtube this, it is freaking amazing.

      Nerdly love to all!

      • The Kraken is totally my spirit animal!

        The octopus is like a miracle of evolution. They’re incredibly intelligent, masters of disguise, great problem-solvers, and they have personalities.

        Perhaps their only downfall is their low-oxygen blood, which causes them to get letharic easily.

        Octopodes can make their home just about anywhere (caves, sunken boats, broken bottles) but never stay in one place too long.

        The Mimic Octopus changes its shape and movement to imitate other plants and animals and protect itself from predators.

        The octopus has two “legs” and six “arms”.

        When they reproduce,the male breaks off part of one of his tentacles which has no suckers and contains sperm. He hands it over to the female, and she stores it in her mantel for later use.

        Sad fact: The Giant Pacifuc Octopus is biologically programmed to die after it reproduces. The male dies a few weeks after mating, and the female lives just long enough to see her eggs hatch.

        I could do this all day… 🙂

      • This is why I love you guys, you embrace nerd-dom instead of turning your noses up at it. Thanks for making my spontaneous octopi-induced facial twitch go away!

      • I also clicked through to say THANK YOU FOR USING OCTOPODES INSTEAD IF OCTOPI. Someone corrected me years ago and now it fucking KILLS me. I feel like I’m on a mission……from god. *Blues Brothers*

    • While I prefer Octopi (it’s just fun to say!) I was told by a marine biologist that the correct form was octopuses. Then I got to college and another biologist told me it was octopodes! Good to know both ways are correct. I was confused!

  2. Fellow linguist (and cephalapodophile) – you have my heart. I will always say octopodes, because being right (and saying things in a hilarious voice [ok-TOP-oh-dees all the way]) is so much fun.

  3. I love love love octopuses soooooo much!
    I held one while scuba diving in spain many years ago and my love has grown from there.
    I had an octopus fascinator for my wedding and I’m planning a tentacle friend tattoo

  4. Had to leave a note here giving props to the lady who helped out with my wedding accessories, Andromeda from Octopus Stew on etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OctopusStew

    She made my veil clip and jellyfish earrings for one of my bridesmaids, which I can’t seem to find a picture of at the moment. She also sculpted the cake toppers (on super short notice) for us with a miniature version of the clip and gave me a free pin with two baby octopodes since I don’t have pierced ears.

  5. Just a reminder since it seems to be coming up a lot in this particular comment thread: if you have a quibble over the wording in any Offbeat Empire blog post, rather than derail comments, you can just click the “Fix Typo” button at the end of the post to submit a correction. More info.

  6. This is a very timely post as I have been looking at octopus tattoos over the past week, and everything else with octopodes (Thank you, Offbeat, for helping me be more grammatically correct.) for that matter!

  7. Can someone tell me where to get the shower curtain?! I found this on Pinterest but the link brings me here and the photo above takes me to a different blog but there are no store links or info on purchasing. I want THAT shower curtain, I have not found one even remotely comparable! *Insert sad face*

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