Job-Seeker With ‘DEVAST8’ Tattoo to Be Sentenced to Prison

File photo of a tattoo being etched into someone's skin. (Pixabay)

After going viral years ago for his “DEVAST8” prison face tattoo, New Zealand man Mark Cropp is slated to appear in court in May for an imitation firearm.

Cropp, in February, was convicted of assaulting and threatening a pregnant woman, the New Zealand Herald reported. The victim was 17 weeks pregnant, and the two apparently got into an argument over her cellphone.

On the firearm charges, he and his face tattoo will appear in court on May 16. He pleaded guilty on the charges in March, the Herald reported.

In 2017, he made international headlines after speaking out on social media over his difficulty in finding work, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The 21-year-old said he received the tattoo, which covers the lower half of his face, while in prison while he was drunk on a home brew-style “prison alcohol.” He was serving time in prison for armed robbery.

According to the website, he previously rejected offers from the Corrections Department to have the infamous tattoo removed.

When his social media post went viral, Auckland-based tattoo removal service Sacred Laser offered to remove it for free. Cropp initially accepted the offer before changing his mind, according to the Stuff.co.nz report.

“One employment place said to me ‘I wouldn’t employ you with that on your face, I wouldn’t even take a second look at you,’” Cropp was quoted as saying by News.com.au.

“I’ve had other people that just shrugged and laughed at me,” he added.

In 2017, he also revealed his regret over the tattoo.

“Once it was started, I thought, I can’t go back on it now,” he said of the night when he got the tattoo. “I wish I had stopped while the outline was there to be quite honest.”

He accepted a free offer to have the tattoo removed by Briar Neville, a senior laser technician at Sacred Laser in Kingsland, Auckland. The first of 12 laser removal sessions—worth several thousand dollars—removed the number “8” from his cheek.

According to reports, he only went to one session.

“It did hurt, it was like a burning sensation,” he told the Metro last year. “Briar did just one section and I have to go in next week to see what reaction it has had. If it is all good and dandy I can have more done every six weeks.”

When he complained on social media, he reportedly received thousands of offers.

In August 2017, Cropp said he would keep the tattoo. When contacted about his change of mind, Cropp replied by text via a partner to say that “he doesn’t want any more removed as he just wanted a job” and that now he has one, he wants to stay out of the media.

Another Case

A few months later, a U.K. man with a neck tattoo said he had difficulty finding a job due to the ink.

Joe Parsons, 21, got the $400 tattoo in memory of his grandfather, Thomas, who died in a care home last year, according to the Daily Mail.

“Before I got the tattoo people thought I was a happy, confident person. Now it feels like people think I’m full of my self and that I don’t give a damn,” he said.

“I still don’t regret it at all though. I’m proud of it because it means so much. What I regret is how other people are perceiving it.”