Grady Hendrix has a couple of interesting examples that point to one way in which the young Lovecraft’s fear of the Asiatic races might have become intertwined (literally) with tentacles…

The first is said to be from 1881, the second is undated but looks like it might be early 1920s? One wonders if this specific type of tentacular depiction was more widespread between the 1880s and the 1920s?