The bizarre evolving mugshots of Florida's tattooed drug dealing thief

A thieving US drug dealer's ever-changing facial tattoos have been captured in a series of mugshots taken after his numerous arrests over the past several years.

Florida man Robert Hardister, 25, may be a failure of a criminal, but a star when it comes to mugshots, even if his own mother would struggle to identify him these days.

Hardister cut a fresh faced figure when he was arrested in 2009. In the years to come, Hardister would be regularly arrested and charged with vehicle theft, among other deviations from the straight and narrow.

When he was picked up in a stolen car in a Walmart carpark on Sunday, little appeared to have changed in his behaviour.

But the change in his appearance was jaw dropping.

Gone was the fresh face, replaced under a mountain of ink barely leaving a glimpse of untouched skin.

Hardister’s mugshots have turned him into something of a celebrity over his eight year career as a petty crook.

By 2011, his mob hair do was gone and the first neck tattoo had appeared in his police portraits.

By 2013 a teardrop had appeared on his cheek; a symbol which can sometimes indicate murder is the wearer’s past.

Hardister apparently thought better of that one. A star was covering the tear by the time another mugshot was taken shortly afterwards.

By February 2014 Hardister had added an SS between his eyebrows. He covered the Nazi symbol by colouring half his face in black and writing “Dead” across his forehead.

By July this year, “dead” was covered by hair and Hardister appeared to have had a wall drawn over the symbols on his neck and by Sunday his transformation was complete.

Hardister, who has pleaded guilty in the past to crimes including theft and drug dealing, is currently waiting in a Palm Beach jail to find out how his pending grand theft auto charges pan out.

He claims the stolen car he was found in in September was leant to him by a friend and he did not know it was stolen.

Hardister did not get bail.