Mapplethorpe shared Wojnarowicz's unflinching approach to transgressive subject matter and queer sexuality rendered in stark black and white, producing work that confronted censorship and social taboo with deliberate artistic precision during the same era.

Tom of Finland worked in black ink to depict explicit homoerotic imagery that celebrated queer sexuality as defiant and political, sharing the same underground print culture and small edition distribution methods seen in this Wojnarowicz work.

Cocteau produced intimate black ink drawings exploring homoerotic and literary themes, and like this piece his work blurred the boundary between visual art and literary world, often depicting figures from queer cultural circles with expressive linework.