--- title: Tom of Finland Stamps From Itella Posti Are Homoerotic description: The stamp will be released by Finland's post office later this year canonical: https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/ author: Matt Vella article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-15T18:25:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:48.785Z og:title: This Is the World's Most Homoerotic Stamp og:description: The stamp will be released by Finland's post office later this year og:url: https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccbd1308c94d6b28/69868ac055a8590e35a80508/20140413_tom_of_finland_450.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Tom of Finland stamp og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the World's Most Homoerotic Stamp twitter:description: The stamp will be released by Finland's post office later this year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccbd1308c94d6b28/69868ac055a8590e35a80508/20140413_tom_of_finland_450.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the World's Most Homoerotic Stamp by [Matt Vella](https://time.com/author/matt-vella/) ## Matt Vella Apr 15, 2014 6:25 PM UTC  Itella Posti by [Matt Vella](https://time.com/author/matt-vella/) ## Matt Vella Apr 15, 2014 6:25 PM UTC The Finnish postal service revealed 33 new stamp designs this week, and tucked among the winter scenes and autumnal gardens is this: a man’s bare behind, lifted from a design drawn by one of the country’s most prominent illustrators, [Touko Laaksonen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%5Fof%5FFinland), known as “Tom of Finland.” The stamps, which will [debut](http://www.posti.fi/english/current/2014/20140413%5Fstamps.html) in September, feature three of Laaksonen’s drawings bearing his trademark leather-bound muscle men. The images embody the “confident and proud homoeroticism” of Laaksonen’s work, [according](http://www.posti.fi/english/current/2014/20140413%5Fstamps.html) to Itella Posti. “The sheet portrays a sensual life force and being proud of oneself,” Timo Berry, a graphic designer who helped select the art, said in a statement. “There is never too much of that in this northern country.” The U.S. Postal Service recently said that it will release a [new stamp](http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2014/pr14%5F025.htm) to honor Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist assassinated in San Francisco in the late-1970s. The stamp, which has yet to be revealed, will be dedicated at the White House in late-May. That will make Milk the first openly gay figure on an American stamp. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/"},"headline":"This Is the World's Most Homoerotic Stamp","datePublished":"2014-04-15T18:25:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:48.785Z","description":"The stamp will be released by Finland's post office later this year","url":"https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/","keywords":["Newsfeed","World","Finland"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccbd1308c94d6b28/69868ac055a8590e35a80508/20140413_tom_of_finland_450.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Vella","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-vella/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccbd1308c94d6b28/69868ac055a8590e35a80508/20140413_tom_of_finland_450.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tom of Finland stamp","caption":"","creditText":"Itella Posti","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/63463/this-is-the-worlds-most-homoerotic-stamp/","name":"This Is the World's Most Homoerotic Stamp"}}]}] ```