Semicolon

Some people have noticed that I have been drawing a semicolon on my forearm for the past six months or so. This habit began after seeing the following image on Tumblr: 

via Tumblr

A semicolon is used when a sentence could have been ended, but it wasn't. I could have ended my life of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. but I didn't. 

I used a semicolon. 

Top Left: Immediately after; Bottom Left: Sami and I on tattoo day
Right: I placed the tattoo on top of an old self-harm scar

Sami and I have been talking about getting our first tattoos for about a year. When the time finally came, I knew what I wanted. A semicolon to remind me that my sentence in this big story is not over. A reminder to always write with a pen, instead of a blade. 

Also, semicolons happen to be my absolute favorite punctuation mark; they connect ideas and phrases in a way that commas and periods cannot. When a writer uses a semi-colon they are intentionally linking two thoughts together to create a different or better meaning for the reader. Semicolons are interesting and artistic. And even a little scary. Most people are afraid to use a punctuation mark with that much power, especially if they don't know how to use it. 

For an excellent and humorous semicolon tutorial, check out The Oatmeal's "How to use a semicolon"