Guess what? Turns out the world loves postage stamps of muscular dudes in BDSM gear. Back in April, Finland announced that it would release a line of stamps to commemorate Tom of Finland, the country's most daring provocateur and its greatest artistic purveyer of muscly guys with bulging crotches. The stamps have only launched this week, but it's already been an overseas hit – customers from 178 of the world's 190 countries have already placed preorders.
Tom of Finland, real name Touko Laaksonen, died in 1991, but was adored for his risqué illustrations that depicted bondage, homosexuality and men in teeny tiny latex pants. The historian Joseph W. Slade even described him as the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" of all time, while art collector Harvey S. Shipley Miller describes his influence as "transcendent".
Finnish postal service Posti said before the launch: "(Tom of Finland's) emphatically masculine homoerotic drawings have attained iconic status in their genre and had an influence on, for instance, pop culture and fashion. The drawings on the stamp sheet represent strong and confident male figures typical of their designer."
Graphic artist Timo Berry designed the stamp range, and said that the stamps signal how far society has come. "It's great that these images, which in the past had to be sold under the table, can now be openly stuck on an envelope or a postcard," Berry told Finnish broadcaster YLE.
Posti reiterated these progressive sentiments in a statement, saying: "Our aim is to keep printing stamps which are in line with our time."
We can't think of anything more modern than blowing your nan's mind by sending her a card with a Tom of Finland stamp. So while Royal Mail has been stuck with shit like this for forever, the Finnish postal service are busy using their stamps to revisit a cult artist and celebrate LGBT rights. Go Finland.
