Former skinhead gang member Trevor Clarke has been given $1300 by an anonymous benefactor to have his facial tattoos removed.
"I'm just amazed and I'm really, really grateful. It will be the start of a new life," Mr Clarke (40) said.
"I'll be a new man and it will feel great. I won't know myself.
I'll get up in the morning and look in the mirror and think: "Who's that?"'
His tattoos include a swastika on his forehead, a Nazi SS symbol on his cheek and skulls on his face and neck, which he had applied as a "mask" during his 15 years in prison.
"I'm used to them, but they don't mean anything to me any more.
"I'm different inside now and it will mean a big deal to me to have them totally gone.
"I've got four kids and it will be great for them and for finding work."
He worked in a fellmongery until it closed two years ago and said his face had made it difficult to find employment.
"What I'd really like to do is work with youth.
"It's good for people to see that the way I went is not the right way to go.
"I wasted my youth and it's easy to go that way, but hard to come back ...
"We've all been teenagers, when you knew it all and no-one else knew anything.
"It's good to see young people doing something with their lives."
The money was offered by an anonymous benefactor after an Otago Daily Times feature on Brockville last month revealed Mr Clarke's mentoring role with young people in the community.
"It was someone who used to live in Brockville who still has an affinity for the area," Brockville identity Syd Adie said.
"Everyone around here knows Trevor and he's become a great inspiration to the young people here.
"It's great to see someone who was on the wrong side for so long do something good for himself."
Mr Clarke has already had three painful laser sessions to remove the ink.
