#inkling biology

[rassicas]

In the splatoon fanbase, there are many misconceptions surrounding the relationship between inklings and water. without fail whenever I mention something related to the topic I'll get replies of "actually the canon is [some popular but incorrect theory]" "no they can do this and this canonically [it's actually a headcanon]" "no its really [something NOA made up]"

so to briefly go over The Facts:

Inklings canonically die when submerged in water. And yes, getting "splatted" is them dying for real, respawning is also an in-universe thing that has existed for at least 2000 years and not just a game mechanic. While the dying in water thing originally came from a game mechanic, it has been repeatedly stated that they incorporated this into the inkling's biology. The water weakness is not because of the water itself being toxic. The reason is based in osmosis. in the process of their evolution, Inklings (and octolings) changed a lot, and one of these changes was the ability to transform between a humanoid and swim form. Doing this transformation requires skin that is a thin, semi permeable membrane [this kind of skin is a trait found in real life molluscs]. The evolutionary trade off is that, because of how semi permeable their skin is, the ink inside of their bodies will bleed out when in contact with another liquid. This is the answer given directly by the series' creator. And here it is confirmed that while the water weakness originated from game mechanics, it is very much became a part of an inkling's in-universe biology. Kind of like how a slug will die if you sprinkle salt on it (for a reason that's almost the same as the inklings), but ultimately needs salt in its diet through the food it eats to live, inklings do drink water and other liquids. Its also not like they touch water and immediately explode, it seems they can wash their hands in it and dip their feet in it and be fine.

Some people think the water weakness is stupid, personally i think its reasonable because Inkling biology is already weird as hell and of how ridiculously advantageous it is to be an ink-based cephalopod. the ink gives them the ability to jump absurdly long distances and cheat death to an extent. they're not losing much by not being able to dunk themselves in water. Anyway point is it sucks that all the relevant canon information on this is one of those japan only things/exclusive to developer interviews and pretty much every time it's brought up in English the localizers make shit up. I plan to make a video about this one of these days, but with how 'controversial' the topic is, and how many little details and connected concepts there are, I've been holding it off because I want to do it right. there's also some specific details that are unclear that I've been hoping would be clarified in the artbook or a dev interview but haven't, I might just have to go for it at this point. for the time being, i hope this post helps clear up a few things!

[weakestwarrior]

I gave all the eye colors in splatoon 3 genotypes.

I am not a geneticist, just someone who thinks heredity and genetics are fascinating. Below the cut are pictures of all eyes colors + their genotypes + the genotypes written out for those that need it!

Inkling Models <- image(s) source

Before we dive in, a few quick things that will make this easier to understand!

* indicates a mutation! M-D means “mutation dominant”, meaning it occurs when either a homozygous dominant + heterozygous dominant, and it means that the mutation would be dominant over homozygous recessive pairs but not hetero itself or homozygous dominant pairs.

Example: Xx* is not more dominant than Xx or XX. Xx* & Xx have the same level of dominance!

M-R means “mutation recessive”, meaning the mutation occurs on a homozygous recessive pair. The M-R is not more dominant/recessive than the non-mutated gene.

Example: xx* is not more dominant than xx. They have the same level of dominance.

And lastly, mutations only “sit” or are carried on the second allele.

GENOTYPES

Listed in order of dominance. I tried my hardest to give every gene set an homozygous dominant, heterozygous, and homozygous recessive but it didn’t work out 100% perfect.

BB - dark blue (homozygous dominant) BB* - dark blue iris & pupil (mutated homozygous) Bb - turquoise (heterozygous) bb - light blue (homozygous recessive) YY - gold (homozygous dominant) YY* - dull mustard (mutated homozygous dominant) Yy - yellow (heterozygous) yy - light yellow (homozygous recessive) yy* - pale yellow w/ glassy pupils (mutated homozygous recessive) PP - purple (homozygous dominant) PP* - dark purple (mutated homozygous dominant) Pp - light purple (heterozygous) pp - powder purple (homozygous recessive) GG - dark gray (homozygous dominant) Gg - gray (heterozygous) Gg* - brown (mutated heterozygous) NN - dark pink (homozygous dominant) Nn - dark pink w/ blueish irises RR - red (homozygous dominant) Rr - red (heterozygous) HH - hazel (homozygous dominant) rr* - pink iris & pupils (mutated homozygous recessive) nn* - pink iris & pupils (mutated homozygous recessive) albinism - the 3rd & final way to get the pink eyes. albinism overrides other eye color genes.

PHENOTYPES (IMAGES)

[loz-the-noob]

20 for Marie

please

Okay I just realised I’ve actually mentioned it before on here but I’d still like to preface it by saying it was actually a crack theory that I came up with following a really weird conversation about low tide ink when I was like. 13. It just ended up sticking and now I’m going to try and justify it for some reason.

So y’know Marie’s a firefly squid? Lots of people draw her like, glowing in the dark and junk, but any time we see her actually in a darker environment in game (So, splatfests. That’s kind of it.) she… doesn’t do that. Presumably, her ability to produce low tide ink that stuns instead of splatting is also linked to her firefly squid-ness. But she couldn’t produce low tide ink ALL the time because then she wouldn’t be able to play turf war, right? It’d just knock everyone out. I really liked the idea that Marie has glowing tentacles though, so I decided to link her glowing tentacles with the ability to produce low tide ink, like I think a lot of people have done. So she can only produce low tide ink while she’s glowing, and vice versa.

On a seemingly unrelated note, all of Marie’s non-squid sisters related songs, or music that’s associated with her, has the word ‘tide’ in it (tide goes out, tidal rush, low tide) in the English translation at least. Tides are controlled by the moon, and the phases of the moon signify months. This is clearly something that’s important to Marie so it would kind of (?) make sense if her firefly squid properties were related to it as well. That would also explain why she doesn’t glow/ produce low tide ink all of the time. But Marie’s not like some kind of werewolf, so it would also have to be something to do with her body too. So. Yeah. To my 13 year-old brain, it made perfect sense that the only possible solution for this CONUNDRUM was that. Marie glows when she’s menstruating. But only in the dark, so it doesn’t come up much, it’s just to do with the timing of splatfests….

Then I spouted some bullsquit about uhhh,,, changes in hormonal levels allowing the enzyme luciferase (that causes bioluminescence) to be produced?? Actually I might of added that later. Which is worse.

…and, I’m aware that brings a WHOLE bunch of questions about inkling biology in general. Do they menstruate at all if they’re (allegedly) not mammals? It’s never actually stated in canon whether they lay eggs or give birth to live young (I think??) BUT they do have bellybuttons so that’s something to….. think about…….. if you desperately need to touch grass as much as I did (do?)

If any cool people with actual theories about Inkling biology see this post…….I’m sorry. That’s why I’m not main tagging it unless it gets like, 5 notes or more.

[sunsetcorvid]

Can i steal some silly headcannons about inklings/octolings, hell mayhaps even inktolings?.. for the soul and totally not to steal and implant in my own silly bastards 👁

I don't think I have much different from in game, though I do follow real life biology on them.

So, starting, Inktolings are biologically impossible, unfortunately. Squid and Octopus are incompatible and thus cannot have children together. So, sorry if you got your hopes up for Inktolings on this blog. I'm not stoppin' y'all from goin' crazy with it though! It's fiction, make as many Inktoling OCs as you want!

Depending on the Octopus species, Octolings have venom. This can range from Barely Harmful to You Will Probably Die If Injected With A Certain Amount. Eight herself is literally the highest on that list, being a Blue-Ringed Octopus, which is one the most venomous species in the ocean. In relation to this, the blue rings that appear on the species also appear in Eight! Makes it easy to tell if she's mad or scared.

In Inklings, they will very much resemble their species in bipedal form. An example being Four, who is a Clubhook Squid! Meaning he's got hooks on his tentacles. The same is seen in Neo, as well, with her being a Magister Armhook Squid. This doesn't just affect tentacles, but physical features as well! Three's ears are smaller and more rounded than a normal Inkling due to being a Hawaiian Bobtail Squid (Which, fun fact, they are more closely related to Cuttlefish than Squid!), Four's ears are much sharper than an average Inkling as well, as Clubhooks have a sharp frame. Marie is a Firefly Squid, so if you've ever noticed in my art her freckles are green and they glow! Bioluminescence babey! Species may also affect their height as well, though not as much as the other stuff. This is why Three is so short compared to everyone else in the Splatoon. (Bobtails are a very small species.) ((The stuff here also apply to Octolings as well!))

Unfortunately, I think this is all I have, but I hope it's interesting!

Here are what some of species I mentioned look like:

[aeriona]

HEY! Do you guys like squid biology? creature headcanons? cool art? well BOY do I have the document for you~~!

It is with great pleasure to show off this absolute chonker of an art/writing project; The Mollusc Era! BEHOLD, MY MAGNUM OPUS!

In this document I go over the intricacies of various cephalopods; Inklings, Octolings, Cuttlings and even the Nautilus! The entire study is illustrated by yours truly, so there's plenty of pretty pictures to gawk at as well as pages upon pages of my concentrated autism ramblings to pour over if that's also your thing. Enjoy!

I’ve also included a Legacy Version of the document: a much older, unfinished version complete with ancient-ass art from mid last year in all of its poorly-rendered glory. A lot of the information in there is also outdated and poorly written, so good luck with that. yuck.

I recommend viewing both of these on desktop as the formatting seems to work best on there. You're more than welcome to use any of the info in there for whatever you like, if you're gonna use my art please credit me though! cheers!

[wavebreakr]

Splatoon artists, how creature are your inkfish?

It’s crazy the variety of how people draw inkfish, so here’s a little game :)

Reblog and put in the tags, and if you’re not an artist you can put how you imagine inkfish

(For an example, canon would be about 2 due to some features like the beak/mouth and fingers being stylized)

[zikadraws]

POV : you just complimented two young punks about their ear piercings and they thank you by schooling you to hell and back

-Long story short ; I have a feeling that since they have no visible eardrum hole to actually serve the hearing function, the inkfish "ears" aren't actually their ears, but the humanoid version of their fins ; or more accurately of the floppy bits on their heads from their original species.

So they aren't actually ears, but they're used for fashion, conveying emotions (they can move them more or less consciously, much like a cat), and also and mainly for protecting their actual ears, located behind them, from weather conditions (like wind or sand storms), from direct impact during fighting circumstances, and from currents, like when they swim.

Their headphones are actually always designed to somehow cover the little slits that are their actual ears. (The fins play as mere structural support then.)

...This is a theory of mine that just kinda jumped in my face when thinking about how Inkling ears are completely flat, and even if it isn't going to stop me from drawing their fins like actual ears, it's cool to have an explanation about that design. Hope you like it too 🤗

(Also side note but I love coming up with random Inkfish designs when illustrating this kind of stuff. Enjoy heavily tattooed Inkling guy, blue-ringed Octoling with the toupee tentacut and OctoGirl with lesbian flag-themed tentacut. Happy Pride.) (:

[shatteredoctoguts]

Whazzup, xeno splatoon time

[cookie-cuttles]

Alright I've been thinking about this for way too long so now I'm spreading the curse to everyone else:

Inklings can make a scratchy comb noise by running their tongue on their beak.

[krissdoutt]

MerMay Day 6! 🫧Bobtail Squid~

Obviously got inspired by Splatoon making her lol

[dolphingirl1234]

ITS TIME FOR THIS AGAIN HELL YEAAAHH

remember that new fic I was talking about like ages ago and said it was almost done and then forgot about it for like a month?? yeah so I'm like three quarters done with chapter 9 (there's 10 chapters) so it should be finished soon...? I probably won't get much done this week because its time for all the mid year tests at school and I still don't know what a diatonic triad is even though I've been playing piano for 13 years

so ANYWAY I have 2 options for you. the next story I write is pRoBablY gonna centre around either tweak or dashi, I haven't decided which yet. I initially planned a whole thing for Dashi and I still want to do it but I've done too much character development for tweak in this fic to just leave her like that 😭

and

wait can I put another poll in this one post

no I can't aghhhsiifaujdfh

I'll make another post with another important poll bc it will kind of determine the entire plot of either story

anyway thanks guys I promise I'm working on this current fic it will definitely be done sometime soon (proofreaders get ready (you can still sign up to proofread if you haven't already there are like 3 posts with the link somewhere in my profile))

byeeeeee

[rassicas]

did you know the brains of real squids are shaped like a donut, and the esophagus runs through the middle of it?

i drew this up a few years back because i wanted to try and see if i could apply that to inklings somehow and this is what i came up with

[weakestwarrior]

I did this with Splatoon 2’s eye colors as well.

Mostly because I’m bored as hell. Please go look at the linked post for context/if you’re confused! Everything will be below the cut.

We don’t have nice models to go off of, but we do have this:

I’ll be matching the colors I described in my last post for the genotypes I show here. I will go in order of the eye colors.

Red = not previously described

GENOTYPES

BB - dark blue (homozygous dominant) Bb - turquoise (heterozygous) Yy - yellow (heterozygous) YY - gold (homozygous dominant) RR - red (homozygous dominant)/Rr - red (heterozygous) NN - dark pink (homozygous dominant) PP - purple (homozygous dominant) LL - black (homozygous dominant)/Ll - black (heterozygous) WW - white (homozygous dominant)/Ww - white (heterozygous) Bb* - dark/“muddy” turquoise (mutated heterozygous) Ee - swamp green (heterozygous) Yy* - dark yellow (mutated heterozygous) MM - magenta (homozygous dominant)/Mm - (heterozygous) Gg - gray (heterozygous)

[hirotheinkling]

My attempt at a design for a realistic inkling! It is a combination of the design of the games and that of the wonderful @aeriona, yet it retains many anatomical features of their design. As for where it would lie between a human with weird hair and a squid with legs as an inkling design, I’d say it would be a 6 or 6.5 (canon is around 2).

Edit: Originally drawn in June 2023.

[ribbondee]

So according to the first Splatoon direct, Inklings can actually freely change their skin and eye colors. At first I thought it was odd, then I remembered that IRL squids and octopuses can change the color and/or texture of their skin and such.

One has to wonder if it's done using the same method, and whether or not it applies to their ink colors as well.

I hope I'm not being captain obvious lmao

[aeriona]

Various sketches + Tera’s boss from where she works at the library (He’s a xanthochromic laced moray btw, crusty old man)

I found out that nautiluses have pre and post-ocular tentacles for sensing things (how exactly idk,, chemosensory maybe?) so i was testing out how that’d look on Tera.