Website of the YearScroll to bottom of article to see what Mark Cropp will look like without his tattoo
The former inmate struggling to find work due to his prison facial tattoo has accepted an offer to have it removed using a laser.
Mark Cropp opened up to the Herald yesterday about his struggle to get a job because of the tattoo, which was done - while he was drunk on homebrew - by his brother in prison a few months ago.
Since being freed from jail, Cropp has struggled to get a job to support his family and claims he wants to turn his life around.
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Advertise with NZME.Cropp told NZ Herald Focus he regretted getting the tattoo and believed removing it is the only way he can continue on his new pathway.
After reading of Cropp's plight on Facebook a company in Kingsland, Auckland contacted him offering to laser remove the tattoo for free - and to provide transport to and from the clinic.
Cropp says he will take them up on the offer.
He had previously rejected offers from the Corrections Department to have the tattoo removed.
However a month before he was due to be released Corrections offered to remove it again and he said yes but it never happened.
Since his story was published in the NZ Herald, Cropp has also been inundated with job offers.
One of the people to offer him a job is Douglas George Hebert, who owns scaffolding company PR Contracting.
He was happy to offer Cropp a labouring job paying $22 an hour.
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Advertise with NZME."We've all made bad choices, doesn't mean we are bad people," says Herbert.
"I'm a big brown man covered in tattoos myself, and I have been on the receiving end of judgment from people who don't even know me."