As a boy, Tom’s first crush was a strapping young farmhand who worked the fields around his family home. Finland is a land of tough physical men, catching fish in the icy sea; cutting logs in the end

Mustaches and muscles Back to the days when men were men and sex was carefree In 1965, Tom of Finland began flirting with the idea of an ongoing character for his panel stories, the ultimate To

Leather-clad outlaws with power between their legs In 1953 Marlon Brando donned a black leather Perfecto motorcycle jacket, military cap, denim jeans, and engineer boots to portray Johnny, sneering

Tom’s take on policemen and criminals Tom’s taste for police officers and felons—and for sexual tension between the two—developed late in his career. “I’ve never been to prison,” he told a class at

Tom’s iconic images of hypermasculine military men When we think Tom of Finland we first picture muscular, macho young men in military gear. Tom’s vision of masculine perfection was formed during hi