JASON Allen Tattersall was "a bit upset" upon learning his ex-girlfriend had slept with another man while he was in prison.

But his act of revenge - in which he bashed a teenager with a baseball bat and tattooed the word "dog" on his forehead - yesterday landed him back in jail, where he'll stay for at least 11 years.

Tattersall's victim Steven Jiminez has a number of permanent reminders of the attack - a partially blind left eye, plates in his face and ankle and the degrading tattoo, which he says he can't afford to have removed.

"The tattoo has left me unemployable," he said in a victim impact statement.

"I cannot get a job. The shock on people's faces just doesn't describe it.

"I am always looking over my shoulder and on edge. I don't really care what the sentence is, it won't give me and my mum our lives back."

The attack on Mr Jiminez, then aged 18, occurred on the kitchen floor of a house at Albion Park, near Wollongong, in February.

Two days after being freed from jail, Tattersall, a 35-year-old father-of-two, tracked down Mr Jiminez after first phoning him and warning: "Were you with my missus c ... ? I'm coming to get you."

Sentenced to a maximum of 14 years and five months jail yesterday after he pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping, Tattersall showed little remorse as Judge Paul Conlon outlined his "sickening" crime in Wollongong District Court.

Tattersall had completed a seven-month term in jail for common assault, possessing a knife, breaching an AVO and driving while disqualified when the attack occurred. Once he had tracked down Mr Jiminez, Tattersall punched and kicked him relentlessly in front of four others, while five children under the age of 12 were sleeping in the next room, the court heard.

He then grabbed a baseball bat and continued to hit the teenager, asking him: "Have you learnt your lesson c ... ? I'm gonna overdose you on heroin and leave you to die. That's what a dirty c ... gets."

Towards the end of the ordeal, Tattersall used a tattoo gun to scrawl the word "dog" on Mr Jiminez' forehead.

Judge Conlon said that the brutal bashing involved "gratuitous cruelty" of a "callous and calculating nature" and described Tattersall as the "ringleader" of the attack.

"His conduct in committing this offence displayed a viciousness and callousness not often seen," he said.

"The offender's criminal behaviour is towards the high end of the range, but just short of the worst-case category."

Judge Conlon said he considered the fact Tattersall was "a bit upset" upon being told his former partner had had a sexual relationship with the victim and was "off his head" on drugs and alcohol.

Originally published as Tattoo's a dog act of cruel revenge