Job offers flood in for Mark Cropp despite his giant facial prison tattoo

A man who has been struggling to find a job because of his extensive prison facial tattoo has been inundated with job offers.

Mark Cropp shared his story with the Herald yesterday about how he wants to get off the dole, find a job, and put food on the table for his family.

But he says a giant tattoo saying "DEVAST8" was proving off-putting for prospective employers.

The Oamaru-born teenager says he had it inked a few months ago, while drunk on homebrew in a jail cell in Christchurch.

He was locked up in 2015, aged 17, for aggravated robbery, after he and a friend pulled a knife on a tourist in Nelson.

Despite his criminal convictions, Kiwis have come forward since yesterday's article and offered jobs for the tattoo-covered man.

Cropp, who will consider his offers today, has also been bombarded with interview requests from media around the world.

One of the people to offer him a job is Douglas George Hebert, who owns scaffolding company PR Contracting.

Douglas George Hebert says he has experienced discrimination himself because of his tattoos.

He was happy to offer Cropp a labouring job paying $22 an hour.

"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."

Herbert said most of his staff had criminal records - and he did not consider that an issue.

"All my guys have got pasts, but we're all united on the job site, where you are only as good as the man beside you."

If Cropp doesn't take up the opportunity, Hebert has also put out the word out for any other Kiwis struggling to find employment to contact him.