After honing his artistic talents with study in Helsinki, he found commercial success in the Finnish advertising industry but secretly he continued creating his increasingly erotic drawings of hyper-masculine men.Īs a way to avoid homophobic censorship law, he submitted drawings to the American magazine Physique Pictorial and soon the Tom of Finland legend was born. Touko Laaksonen, the boy who would become Tom of Finland (1920-1991), began drawing cartoons of the rough and manly men of his native Finland at an early age. Nobody seems to be in trouble, in fact everyone appears to be enjoying themselves. Two male police officers, biceps bursting out of their uniforms, have pulled over a handsome young biker clad in a revealing leather outfit.
