Tom of Finland (née Touko Valio Laaksonen), was a Finnish artist who made stylized erotic art featuring hypermasculinity, which greatly impacted and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He is arguably the most influential creator of gay pornographic imagery, and over the course of forty years produced approximately 3,500 illustrations. His macho archetypes such as the leather man, uniformed officer, and sailor, still permeate gay male sexuality and fantasy today.
