Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland (1920–1991), born Touko Laaksonen, was a Finnish artist and illustrator. He studied art in Helsinki and initially worked successfully in the Finnish advertising industry. Alongside this career, he created homoerotic drawings of hypermasculine men, which he began publishing under the pseudonym Tom of Finland in the American magazine Physique Pictorial in 1957. His work had a lasting influence on gay art and the visual culture of the LGBTQ+ community.