Have you seen or heard of anyone with a semicolon tattoo and wondered what the heck that means? The idea behind the semicolon tattoo is that their story isn’t over yet. It is meant to represent suicide, mental illness, addiction, self-harm, anxiety and anything else that a person may be struggling with and show that there is always room for change. It is your story and it says that you chose to continue telling your story even when you were facing an uphill battle. The founder of this project, Amy Bleuel, said, “We hope to continue to build the project as a non-profit through public speaking and outreach, as well as partnering and donating to organizations with similar missions,” Bleuel has defined some long term goals of the mission: “We also hope to financially contribute to education and treatment.”

With people all over the United States putting these thoughts into action and into ink beginning in 2013, some teachers in Galway decided to join in as well. Mrs. Gerber, Mr. Levin and our new 7th grade teacher, Mrs. Sickels, have all been inked up with this new trend. Mr. Levin shared the story behind his tattoo: “In life inside and outside of school, I have seen people who have dealt with suicide, self-harm and mental illness.” As many of you probably know, Mrs. Gerber and Mr. Levin are siblings. Mrs. Gerber said that one of the reasons that she got her tattoo was to do something with her brother, but that was not the only reason: “It represents support and strength to people who are dealing with or who have dealt with depression and/or suicidal thoughts or maybe who have a family member or friend who has passed from suicide. To me it represents unity; it is like a symbol. When you see someone else with one, you can be like ‘I got you’–instant connection. It symbolizes something that I really want to see throughout the school and it is something that I teach in my classroom.”

I think it is great that teachers are getting involved with such a great project, not only in their personal lives, but they did this for their students as well. Project Semicolon was something that was designed to bring people together and show that everyone has support and the sentence doesn’t have to end. This shows how caring our teachers are and how close-knit the Galway community is. So congratulations on your new tattoos and thank you for your support!

Reminder you must be 18 to get a tattoo! Tattooing of minors is against the law: It is violation of Section 260.21 of New York State Penal Law to tattoo minors under the age of 18, regardless of parental consent. Contact local law enforcement for more information.