This tutorial walks you through setting up a character with tentacles, and should give you a good idea of the general approach to take. Part of working in CG is the ability to push the limits of reality – mechanised parts can be exaggerated to stretch and reach further than possible, or be squashed like a slinky – if set up properly, they can do anything you like.
So first, create a sphere with a radius of 1, subdivisions axis of 8 and subdivisions height of 4. (The actual scale really doesn't matter. You can build it what ever size you need it in the end. In fact the shape of this control is very arbitrary. It just happens to be one I like for the function it serves. In all actuality you could use what ever you wanted for the control of course.)
