Hundreds of people line up at CowPök each year to get a small tattoo, but each person has a different reason for why they are there. 

Cole Hubbard lost one of his friends to suicide when he was just 13 years old.

"It's always stayed with me; he thought there was no better option than that and there weren't resources for that. Looking back I wish I had known the signs [that] something [was] going to happen because he presented almost everything they say and no one caught on," said Hubbard.

Hubbard wanted to get the semicolon tattoo as a beacon for others.

"I'm hoping if people see the tattoos they equate that with the 'you can talk to me type thing,'" said Hubbard.

The fundraiser held on Saturday offerred semicolon tattoos for $40, with half of all payments donated to Crisis Services. 

CowPök hopes to not only raise money, but awareness on the subject and what the semicolon means for so many.

"When an author is writing a book, or a sentence, they could've ended a sentence with a period but they decided to add that little comma in because it's not the end of the sentence. There's an after thought. There's more to it. It's been adopted by suicide prevention because you could've ended your life, but there was more to your story," said Marc Lavey, CowPök tattoo artist.

Lavey started the fundraiser after his cousin took his own life. He wants to make sure everyone knows about Crisis Services and the resources available.

"They do understand, they do get it, they are there for you no matter what; they're a phone call away and I think that's something that if my cousin Scott had known, he would've been able to take advantage of [it]," said Lavey.

Crisis Services representatives say while the number of people seeking help has increased, so has the number of deaths by suicide in Erie County. But they hope by breaking the stigma surrounding the issue, more people will seek help.

"Growing up I had a lot of guy friends; [we] never talk about emotions, we just don't. We're more likely to joke around and crack some jokes. But we had just sat down with them and [was] like 'you need to talk about what's going on,'" said Hubbard.

Inside CowPök as the day goes on, messages of encouragement filled the walls for the authors to remind themselves, and others, why they are there.