A former neo-Nazi had two swastika tattoos removed after forming a strong friendship with a black police officer.

Michael Kent from Colorado spent 20 years in a violent white supremacist group in Arizona, during which he acquired two swastika tattoos on his chest and a large tattoo of "white pride" - a motto used by white supremacists - on his back.

But when he was assigned to a black parole officer called Tiffany Whittier, his outlook on the world started to change.

Ms Whittier said her job was not to judge Mr Kent but to “make a difference” in his life.

She asked him to take down his Nazi flags and replace them with positive images, which Mr Kent said made him "smile" in the mornings.

"She's much more than that [my parole officer],” Mr Kent told ABC News. "I would think of her more like family."

The former white supremacist now works on a chicken farm, where he is the only white person.

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"Before all this, I wouldn’t work for anybody or with anybody that wasn’t white," he said.

"[Now] we have company parties, or they have quinceañeras, I’m the only white guy there!"

Mr Kent was connected to Fallen Heroes Tattoo in Colorado by Redemption Ink, a national non-profit that offers free removals of hate-related tattoos.

Mr Kent said he had never been to a professional tattoo shop before - previously, he had been inked in jail.