The former United Front skinhead gang member grew up in Brockville when "gangs were loud" and "there were always police up here".
After 15 years in prison, and a further decade settling back into life in his home suburb, Mr Clarke wants to help ensure today's Brockville youth "don't go down that road".
Born in Wray St, in 1972, to a Samoan mother and European father, Mr Clarke says family life soured when his parents divorced.
He left home at the age of 13, ended up in foster care and then at a boys' home in Wingatui, near Mosgiel, with his older brother Christian.
When a fire engulfed the home in 1985, Mr Clarke and a friend dragged Christian from the burning building but he died from his injuries.
"From then I was 100% angry," Mr Clarke said.
"I blamed everyone including, at the time, my mother."
Mr Clarke did his first stint in prison at the age of 15 - two years and two months in Invercargill Prison for burning down a shop in Balclutha.
"I was a ratbag, there's no doubt about it. And ... mixed up," he said.
When he returned to Brockville he began hanging out with skinhead gang members.
There was a "heavy gang influence" in the suburb at the time, and his chosen gang was "like a family".
"We all lived together and hated the same things ... There was quite a bit of intergang warfare." Within five months, he was up on murder charges.
Convicted of manslaughter, he was sentenced to seven and a-half years at Christchurch Prison, then known as Paparua Prison.
It was in Paparua, using illegal homemade tools, that Mr Clarke got his first and all his subsequent facial tattoos.
It was a mask of anger and defiance, but also an adaptation that helped him survive in the prison system.
Mr Clarke was out of prison for several months in 1997 before being remanded for aggravated assault.
He had already started to make positive changes while in prison - "I got sick of the whole lifestyle" - but did not have the tools to "make it happen" on the outside.
When he got out of prison in 2001 he returned to Brockville.
Mr Clarke has been living there with his partner ever since.
"Brockville is on the right page ... It's so peaceful and relaxed up here now."
Counselling and family have been key in his new life.
"I'm wiser now and I have children, so my whole outlook on life is different.
"I like my life and I love my family. My missus and my children - that's how I've changed.
"You can't be selfish. I think of my children. That's helped a lot."
He has also reconciled with his mother.
Until two years ago, Mr Clarke worked full-time, first in demolition and then as a fellmonger.
When the fellmongery closed during the present recession, Mr Clarke found "my past and my mask" made it impossible to get work. Like Brockville, it is others' perceptions that are one of the biggest challenges.
"People getting used to you, and realising you're not like that anymore."
He has begun extremely painful laser treatment to remove the facial tattoos. But at $400 a session, more treatment is at present beyond his reach.
So he cares for his family and works out at the gym.
The chairman of the Brockville Community Development Project, Tagiilima Feleti, says Mr Clarke has also been an informal mentor to some young people in Brockville.
"Particularly young men, who get to know him and his story, see there is a different way," Mr Feleti says.
Mr Clarke knows it is a "big deal" for teenagers to have role models who understand them and are willing to "come alongside".
"When I was young, the person I looked up to, my brother, died. And although people tried to stop me going down that road, no-one came alongside me to point me in another direction. I'd like to be that for young people here today."
