This 'Tentacle Art - Red Watercolor Octopus Art Canvas Print' is a kind of artistic love-letter to our eight-limbed friends.
In it you can see a whole array of his limbs spread out in various different ways, as we get to enjoy his body as a form of artwork.
There are around 300 species of Octopuses, including ones like the one in this piece that are a very striking red color.
There is an amazing amount of variety and detail in something as simple as a tentacle, and it lends itself perfectly to the medium of watercolor art. It is not only the color that is striking, but also the angles that the limbs are able to make when they contort and twist, as well as the interesting shadows and shading detail that this produces as a result.
One of the interesting things about the skin of an octopus is that it is now thought that in addition to being able to change color and texture (often as a signaling mechanism), that it also contains pigment proteins, which are usually found in the eyes, and so there is every reason to believe that the process is not simply one way. In other words, that as well as being able to transmit light, that it's very possible that they can also process it through their skin.
I like to think that our red friend is therefore looking at us with those tentacles!
(Imagine if each one of those suckers were an eye!)
Another amazing ability of octopuses is that they are able to regrow limbs that have been severed. One of the interesting things about this is that, in true super-hero fashion, these aren't some sub-standard replacements, they are in every sense 'new' replacements.
Humans are only just catching up to the idea of stem-cells, but Octopuses got their way before us, and naturally, without any interventions. In the laboratory, for example, it has been found that when a limb is severed (pretty horrible, and I don't condone it, but that is what was tested). That a massive amount of stem cells and blood vessels were naturally deployed to the area, and that within 130 days they had regrown a tentacle that was indistinguishable from the original.
(Some species of starfish are even more amazing. They can grow an entire new starfish, just from a portion of a severed arm. Frankenstein would be proud!)
The suction cups are also kinda cool (they are actually called 'suckers'). You can see them positioned all along each tentacle, and they are able to move in any direction, and stretch out to over twice their normal length when called upon to do so. They are also amazingly sensitive, and in addition to allowing the octopus to grip onto things, they can literally move an item along them.
They also have blue blood and three hearts!
