ST. CLOUD - Cream City Tattoo is hosting an event to bring awareness and raise money for mental health.

The signature tattoo for the event is the semicolon. According to Project Semicolon's website the semicolon is used when an author could have chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and your life is the sentence.

Teri Ann Miedema is the main artist for the initiative. She says there is such a demand for the semicolon tattoo the shop decided to devote multiples days to raising awareness for the cause.

"There has been outcry for these tattoos, and we don't always have time to tear down and set up for all these little tattoos. So Ryan came to me and asked if I would be willing to open up my schedule to book all of these in one day and I said yes and  it has been a success ever since."

Artists in the shop talked about how they have been personally impacted by mental health issues. A friend and mentor of someone who worked at the shop struggled just to talk about the issues they were having.

Miedema says she has already heard stories about ways the tattoos are helping people break the ice on the stigma of mental health issues.

"I just did a touch up on a girl and she said it has helped her immensely. Not only can she look down and touch and remind herself it's worth going on. But she says a lot of people have asked 'why do you have a semicolon?' and she has been able to tell them her story. She said it's already been able to help her so much and it's all because of this little tattoo."

Miedema mentioned that because everyone who gets the semicolon has an incredible story of how their life has been impacted by mental health issues, she has started a book for people to write their stories down, so she never forgets why she does this.

This is the third time Cream City has held the semicolon tattoo event. Going into the last of three events the shop has raised over $1,200 for the "The Beautiful Mind Project".

If you would like to learn more about Cream City Tattoo or "The Beautiful Mind Project" follow the links below.

 

Photo: Richard Leguil, WJON
WJON Reporter Justin LaBounty gets semicolon tattoo at Cream City Tattoo (Photo: Richard Leguil, WJON)
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