In New Zealand, 19-year-old Mark Cropp was serving a two-year, three-month term for stealing a knife after a failed drug sale. While serving his sentence, he was forced to leave behind his girlfriend and little daughter.
The two of them became very drunk on homemade alcohol made from fermented apples, bread, and sugar one night in the prison cell he and his brother shared.
In a heavy haze, Mark and his brother decided to use melted plastic knives and forks and toothpaste as ink to tattoo his moniker on his face.
The resultant tattoo, a massive black inking that reads “Devast8” over his jaw and bottom half of his face, became one of Mark’s greatest regrets the next morning.
Mark was a parent without a job and searching desperately for one two months after being released from prison.
His tattoo immediately turned off employers. No one was willing to hire him, even though he had prior work experience.