Tom of Finland Stamps

 Grace your envelopes with some homo eroticism. Tom of Finland stamps (left) are the recent craze in the Nortic country of Tom's namesake homeland, to be issued in September.

 The head between the legs, the butt and the eye of conviction, or the man smoking a cigarrette? Born in 1920, a former anti-aircraft officer during WWII, Touko Laaksonen better known as Tom of Finland began making pencil magic and continued for four decades producing over 3500 illustrations. Surely, we can pick out a couple of other ones for the series to come. Here are some ideas.

 "These works are not conversation pieces, they're masturbation pieces." described by Rob Meijer, owner of a leather shop and gallery in Amsterdam, Tom's work has been credited for having influence on Robert Mapplethorpe, Freddie Mercury and The Village People.

 Although Vivenne Westwood's iconic Sex Pistols t-shirt is often attributed to Tom, the design is actually by Los Angeles artist and Colt Studios founder Jim French, who's been bringing Tom of Finland to screen since 1967.

In case you're wondering, "Lk 1 KL" means "First Class" in Finnish. Now, which sticky stamp's backside would you lick to send your ambiguously gay cousin his Christmas card?