Tom of Finland: The Artist Who Redefined Gay Masculinity

Tom of Finland, born Touko Valio Laaksonen in 1920 in Kaarina, Finland, created iconic homoerotic art featuring hypermasculine men in leather and uniforms. His work inspired Freddie Mercury, Rob Halford, and the Village People, and he was friends with Robert Mapplethorpe. After studying advertising, he was conscripted in 1940 and destroyed his early drawings. In 1957, he published under the pseudonym Tom of Finland in Physique Pictorial. He subverted heterosexual macho iconography for gay culture, influenced by biker culture. Homosexuality was illegal in Finland until 1971. In 1973, he quit advertising to focus on art. His first exhibition in Hamburg in 1976 was stolen; his second was in Los Angeles in 1978. Durk Dehner founded the Tom of Finland Foundation in 1984. His partner Veli died in 1981, and Tom was diagnosed with emphysema in 1988. He died in 1991, largely unknown in Finland until his obituary. His works are now in MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and MOCA Los Angeles. In 2014, Finnish postal service Itella Posti issued stamps with his art, the world's first homoerotic stamps.