Behold the glory that is Finland's latest set of postage stamps.
Itella, the country's postal service, on Monday announced plans to begin selling stamps that feature the "confident and proud homoeroticism" of Tom of Finland, or Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish artist known for his gay erotic sketches.
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(Itella Courtesy)
Laaksonen, who died in 1991, called his drawings "dirty pictures." Some of them maybe were.
But, besides a little leather and some booty, the 33 different stamp designs don't include any hardcore images.
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(Itella Courtesy)
"Of course the choice was discussed," Markku Penttinen, Itella's developmental director, told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. "But we wanted to live in the year 2014."
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(Itella Courtesy)
The release of the stamps will coincide with an exhibition of Laaksonen's work at Finland's Postal Museum.
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(Itella Courtesy)
Incidentally, Finland isn't all that LGBT-friendly of a country. Same-sex marriage has yet to be legalized and gay couples are not allowed to adopt kids outside of the other partner's biological children.
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