diff --git a/jrnl/Entry.py b/jrnl/Entry.py
index f04d9e0f..fa2650ca 100755
--- a/jrnl/Entry.py
+++ b/jrnl/Entry.py
@@ -16,9 +16,15 @@ class Entry:
         self.starred = starred
         self.modified = False
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def tag_regex(tagsymbols):
+        pattern = r'(?u)\s([{tags}][-+*#/\w]+)'.format(tags=tagsymbols)
+        return re.compile( pattern, re.UNICODE )
+
     def parse_tags(self):
         fulltext =  " " + " ".join([self.title, self.body]).lower()
-        tags = re.findall(r'(?u)\s([{tags}][-+*#/\w]+)'.format(tags=self.journal.config['tagsymbols']), fulltext, re.UNICODE)
+        tagsymbols = self.journal.config['tagsymbols']
+        tags = re.findall( Entry.tag_regex(tagsymbols), fulltext )
         self.tags = tags
         return set(tags)
 
diff --git a/jrnl/Journal.py b/jrnl/Journal.py
index 2dab065a..b94a5d36 100644
--- a/jrnl/Journal.py
+++ b/jrnl/Journal.py
@@ -165,9 +165,9 @@ class Journal(object):
                                 lambda match: util.colorize(match.group(0)),
                                 pp, re.UNICODE)
             else:
-                pp = re.sub(r"(?u)([{tags}]\w+)".format(tags=self.config['tagsymbols']),
-                            lambda match: util.colorize(match.group(0)),
-                            pp)
+                pp = re.sub( Entry.Entry.tag_regex(self.config['tagsymbols']),
+                        lambda match: util.colorize(match.group(0)),
+                        pp)
         return pp
 
     def __repr__(self):