diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4370a9a..042dff3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ starting at 1. Multiple matching definitions are separated by one or more empty
 lines. The first mapping rule that matches a StatsD metric wins.
 
 Metrics that don't match any mapping in the configuration file are translated
-into Prometheus metrics without any labels and with certain characters escaped
-(`_` -> `__`; `-` -> `__`; `.` -> `_`).
+into Prometheus metrics without any labels and with any non-alphanumeric
+characters, including periods, translated into underscores.
 
 In general, the different metric types are translated as follows:
 
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ follows:
      => signup_events_total{provider="facebook", outcome="failure", job="foo_product_server"}
 
     test.web-server.foo.bar
-     => test_web__server_foo_bar{}
+     => test_web_server_foo_bar{}
 
 
 If the default metric help text is insufficient for your needs you may use the YAML
diff --git a/exporter_test.go b/exporter_test.go
index 7eeb4e1..9941f0e 100644
--- a/exporter_test.go
+++ b/exporter_test.go
@@ -153,3 +153,21 @@ func (ml *mockStatsDTCPListener) handlePacket(packet []byte, e chan<- Events) {
 	}
 	ml.handleConn(sc, e)
 }
+
+func TestEscapeMetricName(t *testing.T) {
+	scenarios := map[string]string{
+		"clean":                   "clean",
+		"0starts_with_digit":      "_0starts_with_digit",
+		"with_underscore":         "with_underscore",
+		"with.dot":                "with_dot",
+		"with😱emoji":              "with_emoji",
+		"with.*.multiple":         "with___multiple",
+		"test.web-server.foo.bar": "test_web_server_foo_bar",
+	}
+
+	for in, want := range scenarios {
+		if got := escapeMetricName(in); want != got {
+			t.Errorf("expected `%s` to be escaped to `%s`, got `%s`", in, want, got)
+		}
+	}
+}