We all may have fantasised about how to leave our mark before farewelling a soon-to-be ex-employer but few would go to the extremes of long-time Beat magazine typesetter Luke Benge.

Mr Benge, who according to friend Oliver Palmer has moved to New York, managed to switch the music street magazine's front cover from a British band to a naked drawing of himself, no doubt leaving readers a little baffled.

A cropped image of Beat magazine's 'hijacked' cover.

The free weekly magazine's front page this week featured a sketch of a naked tattooed bespectacled man, complete with graphic genitalia, giving the thumbs up with the words "Sayonara, Bitches! It's been real".

Beat seems to have taken the sneaky swap on the chin and told readers in a post on its website that the "hijacked" cover was a salute to "Captain Luke Benge" — "our much loved eccentric typesetter who's been with us longer than we can remember".