diff --git a/lib/makeup/lexers/erlang_lexer.ex b/lib/makeup/lexers/erlang_lexer.ex
index fbe119b..a7789dd 100644
--- a/lib/makeup/lexers/erlang_lexer.ex
+++ b/lib/makeup/lexers/erlang_lexer.ex
@@ -155,9 +155,8 @@ defmodule Makeup.Lexers.ErlangLexer do
   character =
     string("$")
     |> choice([
-      escape,
-      string("\\") |> ascii_char([?\s, ?%]),
-      ascii_char(not: ?\\)
+      string("\\") |> utf8_char([]),
+      utf8_char(not: ?\\)
     ])
     |> token(:string_char)
 
@@ -247,7 +246,7 @@ defmodule Makeup.Lexers.ErlangLexer do
     |> concat(token("/", :punctuation))
     |> concat(number_integer)
 
-  # Erlang prompt 
+  # Erlang prompt
   erl_prompt =
     string("\n")
     |> optional(string("(") |> concat(atom_name) |> string(")"))
diff --git a/test/makeup/erlang_lexer/erlang_lexer_tokenizer_test.exs b/test/makeup/erlang_lexer/erlang_lexer_tokenizer_test.exs
index a7b8242..f212995 100644
--- a/test/makeup/erlang_lexer/erlang_lexer_tokenizer_test.exs
+++ b/test/makeup/erlang_lexer/erlang_lexer_tokenizer_test.exs
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ defmodule ErlangLexerTokenizer do
     assert lex("") == []
   end
 
+  test "character" do
+    assert lex("$a") == [{:string_char, %{}, "$a"}]
+    assert lex("$\\ ") == [{:string_char, %{}, "$\\ "}]
+    assert lex("$🫂") == [{:string_char, %{}, "$🫂"}]
+  end
+
   test "comment" do
     assert lex("%abc") == [{:comment_single, %{}, "%abc"}]
     assert lex("% abc") == [{:comment_single, %{}, "% abc"}]