I got my first tattoo after I turned 18 and right before I went away to college. I got it secretly and didn't tell my family. When they found out, they were disappointed that I decided to "ruin my body" with my tattoo. Little did they know what a semicolon tattoo meant. I educated them on the whole meaning behind Project Semicolon. See, little tattoos can have big meanings.

If you don't know what Project Semicolon is, it is "an organization dedicated to the prevention of suicide. Our work is based on the foundation and belief that suicide is preventable and everyone has a role to play in preventing suicide. By raising public awareness, educating communities, and equipping every person with the right tools, we know we can save lives." An author uses a semicolon when they were going to end a sentence but decided to continue it. The semicolon is a metaphor for my life; I was going to end it but I decided to continue on. Looking down at my wrist every day and seeing my semicolon next to faded scars reminds me that my story isn't over yet.

Chiara Williams

A year later I went with my friend to get a tattoo and while I was there, I decided to get my next tattoo. It was kind of an impulsive choice, but it was something I knew I wanted so badly. It is on my foot and it says "Everything Happens For A Reason." When I got home, my family said it made me look like "white trash" to have a tattoo on my foot. They didn't even give it a chance.

I have been through so much in my life where I questioned "why, why me?," and now my life motto is everything happens for a reason. Some days I need to be reminded because I don't know the reason why and I get mad because of horrible things that happen to me. God has a reason for everything, and I might not know the reason, but I will soon learn or it will make me a better person. God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers and I just need to remember that.

The last tattoo that I currently have I just got at the end of this semester. When thinking of getting this tattoo, I was inspired by Ed Sheeran's song "Save Myself." I was going to get the lyrics of the song but I already had a quote so it took me a while to figure out how I wanted a song that changed my life tattooed on my body forever. I realized that every song on his last album each had different artwork dedicated to it. The artwork for "Save Myself" was a divide symbol inside of a shield. I decided to get that as a tattoo on the inside of my left ankle. When my family saw this one they said, "Wwhy would you get such ugly artwork on your body? The lines are all screwed up." They didn't realize the significance it had an that's how the artwork was done.

Some lyrics on the song that really spoke to me are "Before I save someone else, I've got to save myself" and he ends the song with "Before I love someone else, I've got to love myself." I'm always focused on making everyone else happy and I always try to hide the demons that live inside of me. Having this reminder teaches me to save myself and make sure I am whole and truly living before I try to hide that and save others.

Chiara Williams

I know that these three tattoos are not the end of my tattoo journey and I will get many more. I know my family doesn't approve of them or they think they are ugly, but to me, they save my life every day. To me, it's the small victories that matter and these tattoos help me create small victories every day. I'm not afraid to hide my tattoos anymore because once people hear the story behind each one, they finally understand. Even though my family doesn't seem to understand, it's ok because they didn't live my life and they can never truly understand why these tattoos mean so much to me.