Project Semicolon, a movement which aims to give hope to people struggling with suicide, depression, addiction and self-harm, has led to countless people having the punctuation mark inked somewhere on their body.

Image Ink Tattoo owner Raelene Shiels said in the space of a week, her team had tattooed the symbol on at least 50 people.

“We suddenly had customers coming in wanting semicolon tattoos, so we asked them what it was about,” she said.

The business decided to support the project by running a fundraiser for headspace.

Ms Shiels said supporting the project and using it to raise money for a local charity was a no brainer.

“It is heartbreaking the number of memorial tattoos we do for young people who have lost a friend to suicide,” she said.

The business donated half of what customers paid for each semicolon tattoo inked by her team.

“I think [Project Semicolon] is brilliant,” she said.

“It’s about the person saying, I could have ended my story here, but I decided not to. It’s really powerful.”

West Nowra man Scott Deakes and his wife Leanne both had semicolons tattooed on their bodies.

“We had a friend with a semicolon and for her she said it was about the dark times when she thought she could have ended her life, but decided not to,” Mr Deakes said.

“She could have ended the sentence, but didn’t; the sentence continued.

“When Rae at Image Ink, who has been a friend of ours for a long time now, said they were going to raise money for mental health charities by doing semicolon tattoos, my wife and I were eager to join a great cause.”

Mr Deakes said he thought it was amazing the project had taken off all over the world.

“[The semicolon] is the smallest of my seven tattoos, but shows that I want to help support people dealing with mental illness,” he said.

“It’s just a chemical imbalance, a medical issue like a head cold.”