'Hot felon' Jeremy Meek's past is hard to face for him. It is something he is wanting to hide. Hide away from himself as well as his two stepkids and one biological son. But his body ink includes multiple references to the Crips. Meeks was raised in a poor household, Meeks was exposed to crime from an early age, joining the Northern Crips gang. His father is doing life in prison and his mother is a heroine addict.

Since being released from jail in March 2016, Meeks, 32, of Stockton, California has embarked on a career as a model and appeared on the catwalk at Phillip Plein during New York Fashion Week in February. He has also completed his first cover shoot – for British magazine Man About Town, with the issue featuring the felon due to launch this Thursday.

"Most of my tattoos are from my past which I am trying to shed and remove," he told the magazine. "You can quit, to a certain extent I have, I am very extremely non-active. I'm grown now."

"They ask me a lotta questions that are really hard to answer. All they gotta do is type in my name, Google it. It tells about crimes and my background and my gang affiliation. There comes a million questions, " he said. "They want to be just like me – I don't want to tell, yeah I'm a Crip and I'm this and I'm that and I've done this and I've done that. And it's nothing to boast about or even something you even want to talk to your kids about because next you know, they say, 'OK well my dad's a Crip so that's what I'm going to be.'"

Meeks is listed as a defendant in Washington courts in at least five cases between these dates. In 2005 he was jailed for theft, in 2007 he was jailed again for forgery. He served less than 75 days for each offense In June 2014 Meeks is arrested and charged with felony weapons possession as part of a crackdown on gangs in Stockton.

On June 19, 2014 Stockton Police post his 'hot' mugshot on their Facebook page, where it has since attracted more than 100,000 likes and tens of thousands of shares. This brings attention of many modeling agencies. But in February of 2015: Meeks is sentenced to two years in jail for weapons violations.