Perfect tentacle effects achieved with Photoshop layer styles

Frequently, on foreign PS websites, I see experts creating amazing tentacle effects. I've also asked them how they achieve such tentacle effects, and their answer was always "hand-drawn." It seems that achieving cool effects requires a solid art foundation. I almost gave up until one day, after relentless experimentation, I finally managed to create this effect with just a few parameters. Don't believe it? Take a look!