Tom was here – Artist Touko Laaksonen’s Helsinki
Artist Touko Laaksonen, better known as Tom of Finland, was born in Kaarina but spent most of his adult life in Helsinki. It was in these parts of the city that Tom fought in the war, loved, worked, and created art.
Suomenlinna
Born to a teacher’s family in Kaarina, high school graduate Touko Laaksonen moved to Helsinki in autumn 1939. The following spring, while studying at the Helsinki School of Sales and Advertising, he was called up for military service, just weeks after the Winter War ended.
When the Continuation War began in summer 1941, Touko was assigned to air defence duty at the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress. Later, he served in other parts of Helsinki, including Pajakukkula in the city’s Pitäjänmäki district.
Laaksonen was a distinguished soldier; commanding his own air defence crew in Helsinki. The team successfully shot down a Russian plane, and Laaksonen was awarded the Cross of Liberty medal, which the famed military leader Marshal Mannerheim personally pinned on the young lieutenant’s chest.
Esplanade Park
In 1940s Finland, homosexuality was a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. Yet, during wartime, the city of Helsinki fostered a somewhat more open-minded atmosphere. With death ever-present, people had less time to moralise or interfere in others’ lives. Touko recalled being surprised at how openly gay life could thrive in wartime Helsinki.
“For some reason, the central Esplanade boulevard known as Espa and the nearby Observatory Hill were the number one spots in Helsinki. Everyone was at Espa… I was casually passing through there and started to notice that pretty much everyone were of the giggling kind, and I realised that they must be gay…”
-Touko
Artist, Tom of Finland
Observatory Hill
Touko found men to his taste at Observatory Hill, a sloping park surrounding the old observatory. The hill had already become a notorious cruising spot at the turn of the century, serving as a meeting place for men. It also attracted bored soldiers from the nearby Kaarti barracks seeking escapades.
“Then the Soviets came. They seemed to be purposefully drafted from Siberia, sort of rough-looking guys who didn’t speak any languages so they couldn’t communicate with the Finns. These soldiers patrolled the streets in pairs and kept an eye on possible riots or troubles. They started to very quickly make their rounds at Observatory Hill, which was a popular place among gays at the time.”
The war ended, and Touko sought life and sex. Many nighttime encounters with former enemies at Observatory Hill became lasting inspirations for Tom of Finland’s illustrations.
Hometown
Tom of Finland
Restaurant Palace, Eteläranta 10
In an interview, Laaksonen mentioned feeling like an “old man” after the war – at the age of just 24. Nonetheless, life went on. Alongside his advertising studies, Touko pursued his passion for music at the Sibelius Academy.
During the war, Laaksonen had organised a choir among the artillery men, which even performed on wartime entertainment tours. His dream was to become a musician rather than an illustrator.
“I imagined becoming a good pianist and composer. I also studied composition but it was a dead end. I had to work so damn hard with the piano, and I never learned anything.”
Despite his self-criticism, Laaksonen supported himself as a successful restaurant pianist at prominent Helsinki venues like Primula and Elanto on Kluuvikatu. His longest stint was at the elegant restaurant of the luxurious Palace hotel. He also worked as a rehearsal pianist at Helsinki’s Swedish Theatre and composed his own music.
Restaurant König, Mikonkatu 4
Touko met his life partner, Veli “Nipa” Mäkinen, by chance in summer 1953. Laaksonen ran into the young man near his house and invited him in for a drink.
Laaksonen and Mäkinen went on to live together for 28 years.
Originally from Orivesi, Mäkinen was a talented dancer who worked in operettas. However, his main career was in hospitality, where he served as a waiter and maître d’. He spent years as maître d’ at the legendary Restaurant König on Mikonkatu.
Töölönkatu 42
In the late 1950s, Laaksonen applied for an illustrator position at the advertising agency Liikemainonta (later McCann Helsinki) on Töölönkatu 42 and was hired. Excelling in his role, Touko eventually became the agency’s artistic director.
Maintaining a low profile, Laaksonen sent some of his erotic drawings to the American “muscle journal” Physique Pictorial in 1956. The magazine published his sexy illustrations in 1957 under the pseudonym Tom of Finland. Orders for more work soon followed.
Inspired by his wartime experiences, Laaksonen often featured military uniforms in his drawings – not as political statements but as erotic ones. His work also depicted other masculine archetypes, such as lumberjacks, policemen, sailors, and bikers. While Touko chose themes that personally aroused him, he also created radical new representations of gay men: powerful, healthy, happy, and optimistic, defying the tragic outcast stereotypes of the time.
Neighbourhoods
Tom’s Helsinki
Tehtaankatu 7 (Touko and Nipa’s Home, 1969–1984)
Touko and Veli lived in various homes across Helsinki, including on Uudenmaankatu in Punavuori and Ulvilantie in Munkkivuori. In 1969, they moved to a spacious 92-square-metre apartment in Ullanlinna at Tehtaankatu 7, door D, apartment 92.
In the 1970s, Tom of Finland’s work gained wider distribution through the Swedish publisher Revolt Press, which also organised his first exhibition in the backroom of a sex shop in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district.
In 1978, Laaksonen realised his long-running dream of visiting the US. In sunny Los Angeles, he was welcomed by admirer and future collaborator Durk Dehner. They became friends and, in 1979, established the Tom of Finland Company to manage the growing demand for Laaksonen’s work.
By the late 1970s and 1980s, Tom of Finland’s influence was everywhere – from music videos by the Village People, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Freddy Mercury to the runway shows of Jean-Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler, as well as films like Cruising. Art world icons like Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe were fans. Warhol attended Tom’s first U.S. exhibition, and Mapplethorpe visited Laaksonen in Finland.
Tom of Finland went on to have numerous exhibitions across Europe and the US. His art institution debut was at the New Museum in New York City in a 1989 group exhibition. Today, his works are included in the collections of prestigious art museums such as MoMA in New York, LACMA in Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Helsinki’s Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.
Fredrikinkatu 43 (Tom’s Home, 1986–1991)
After Nipa’s passing, Tom spent more and more time in the US. The Los Angeles sun, men, and the city’s celebration of his work energised the ageing artist. Every summer he would however return to Finland.
In 1986, he moved to a spacious Jugendstil apartment at the corner of Fredrikinkatu and Lönnrotinkatu in the Kamppi district. Though he was at the height of his career, Laaksonen’s health began to decline in the mid-1980s. A lifelong smoker, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which greatly affected his life. In 1988, he had to give up his beloved trips to America.
Hietaniemi Cemetery
Touko Laaksonen passed away on 7 November 1991 at Laakso Hospital in Helsinki. His ashes were scattered in the memorial grove at Hietaniemi Cemetery.
Ratakatu 1
In 1976, Finland’s first fetish association, MSC Finland, was founded for men interested in leather, rubber, uniforms, and sports gear. Tom joined the club in 1977 and became an honorary member. He occasionally attended the club’s events, such as gatherings at the Kultakauha restaurant on Ratakatu. In 1990, he was appointed the club’s honorary chairman.
Tom’s impact as an artist and ally cannot be understated. Club members proudly referred to themselves as “Tom’s men,” and MSC Finland officially added “Tom’s Club” to its name in 1991 in tribute to its most famous member.
