Tom of Finland’s Homoerotic Stamps Are a Hit

Tom of Finland’s Homoerotic Stamps Are a Hit

artnet News, Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The postage stamp set featuring Tom of Finland’s images
Photo: Itella Posti Oy

The Finnish postal service launched its much-awaited set of stamps by homoerotic artist Tom of Finland on Monday. And boy were they a hit.

According to the AFP, Posti, as the postal service has been called since 2011, sold stamps to 178 of the world’s 196 countries during the six months of pre-sale time. Sweden, the UK, the US, and France followed Finland in the number of stamps purchased.

It’s too early to tell how the stamps will stack up against other series in terms of total sales. But the postal service said that the Tom of Finland stamps were already the most popular ever in terms of media attention. “Our aim is to keep printing stamps which are in line with our time,” Posti spokesman Markku Penttinen noted when announcing the success to the news agency.

Posti announced the stamp set honoring the artistic pseudonym of Touko Laaksonen (1920–1991) back in April (“Lick Me! Finnish Postal Stamp Honors Tom of Finland’s “Proud Homoeroticism”“). The stamps were designed by graphic artist Timo Berry who said at the time that the images he chose “represent strong and confident male figures typical of their designer,” and that the sheet “portrays a sensual life force and being proud of oneself. There is never too much of that in this northern country.”