Teenage father with 'DEVAST8' tattoo now deluged with job offers 'but still waiting for the right one'

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White House Correspondent

A young father with the word "DEVAST8" tattooed across his face has been inundated with job offers after his story was shared around the world, but said he was still "waiting for the right one".

Mark Cropp, 19, took to Facebook on Wednesday to beg employers to look past his prominent facial art, which was drunkenly inked by his brother while they were both spending time in jail.

Within hours he was deluged with offers of employment and said he "stopped counting when I reached 45". But he has yet to accept a position.

"I am just waiting for the right one to come about,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The teen, from Auckland, New Zealand, said part of the problem was many of the jobs required a car.

"Until I get my first paycheck and get a car I won't be able to get myself around,' he added.

He said he had received two firm job offers, including from a scaffolding firm owner who is tattooed himself, and was mulling both over.

"We've all made bad choices, doesn't mean we are bad people," company boss Douglas George Herbert told the New Zealand Herald.

"I'm a big brown man covered in tattoos myself, and I have been on the receiving end of judgement from people who don't even know me."

Mr Cropp was serving a two-year jail term for aggravated robbery when his brother did the facial art using a makeshift needle and fermented food.

The brother had apparently been drinking an alcoholic home brew made from fermented apples, sugar and bread and intended the tattoo to be smaller than it was.

Mr Cropp said: "I fell asleep and eight and a half hours later I woke up with this.

"I completely forgot about it and then when I looked in the mirror I was like 'holy sh**' so I have had to live with it from then."

The teenager has accepted an offer to have the artwork removed for free since his Facebook post.

He said prospective employers had "shrugged and laughed" at him over the tattoo.

"When I went into the job centre one day they said 'we would not even employ you with that ugly thing on your face'," he said.

He is now considering taking up the scaffolding job once his tattoo is lasered off and he has permission from his probation officer.

The teenager hopes finding work will help him and his girlfriend win back custody of his daughter, who has been placed in care.