Blue, green, pink hair. Piercings, tattoos, shaved heads. I look around at all the students at the University of Wales Swansea and see youth rebelling and making a mark to remember college.

People leave familiar surroundings, and sometimes decide to mark the occasion by marking their bodies. They do something they would not have done under normal circumstances. New friends and a new life allow the space to make your own decisions.

I experienced this opportunity when I was a freshman at Iowa State. Two days after my 19th birthday, my roommate and I had our tongues pierced.

We weren’t alone in our actions. Other friends went with us and we made it into a piercing party. That night we pierced two ears, a naval, two tongues, and two nipples.

In Wales, British students are no different from American students. I ran into a Welsh student I met a few days before on my mile-and-one-half bus ride to campus from the student village. The freshman had black hair when I first met him, but in two days it had miraculously changed its color to blue.

I asked why he chose blue. He couldn’t really come up with any explanation other than “It looks cool.”

I kept thinking, “What are his parents going to say to him when he goes home?”

I hoped it was the same as my parents’ reaction-they didn’t seem to care too much. I hid my tongue piercing for a while, but they spotted it quickly.

My roommate, on the other hand, has managed to hide her tongue piercing for almost two years. Either that or her parents refuse to acknowledge its existence.

Maybe it’s all for the shock appeal. I’ll go home to show friends and family pictures of what I saw in Europe, but I can also prove I did something instead of just showing pictures of cathedrals and castles.

I was enticed a bit by the shock appeal. I didn’t plan on doing anything too drastic here, but I had a bad day last week.

I decided there wasn’t a better way of having a good day than having my nose pierced.

It all happened very fast, actually. I went to check the mail for my BritRail pass, but it hadn’t arrived, yet.

I saw my friend, Beth, grabbed her and told her she had to go to the city centre with me. She was planning to go anyway, but I said I was going to have my nose pierced whether she came with me or not.

I wasn’t exactly certain where I could have it done, but my flatmates told me of a parlor by the Swansea train station (the good part of town, right)?

Beth and I walked for about 20 minutes before I saw the sign.

I confidently walked up a set of very creepy stairs, down a few hallways to a tattoo parlor filled with people who looked like people you’d expect to see in a tattoo parlor.

I gazed at the artwork displayed on the walls-you know great pictures of snakes and naked women. I finally got up the nerve to have the piercing done.in a back room.with the door closed. I made Beth come in with me.

Deep breaths.

The gun snapped and I had a freshly protruding gold stud with a diamond stuck into my nose for only a fiver.

I was actually considering not telling any of my friends, but if I slipped the news to one person, it would have circulated within a couple hours.

I wonder now why I did it. I would not have even considered piercing my nose back in Ames or Rock Rapids.

I guess a new environment leads to life-style and ideal changes.