Leaving MS-13 is a lot harder than joining it.

An unnamed member of the notorious gang tried to quit — but in January his former fellow gangsters learned he had inked over his distinctive MS-13 tattoo — and surveilled him in Jamaica, Queens, for months planning a hit, prosecutors said in court papers Wednesday. Luckily, investigators were listening to the plotters’ phones and interceded before the attack.

The phone taps were part of a larger investigation by prosecutors, NYPD and Homeland Security that led to 12 MS-13 members being indicted.

All of the alleged violence — one murder, and several attempted murders — were gang-related with no civilian victims.