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Not two steps inside this 8-foot-high inflatable tube, a sign on the curved wall disabuses any comparison to cosmetics. Pink, in the world of Super Colon, means "normal tissue."

Twenty feet long, shaped like a comma, Super Colon is a self-contained journey through that part of the digestive system that, when healthy, stays smooth and the color of a summer blush.

That's where the Super Colon journey starts.

It ends with the specter of advanced colon cancer.

Polyps have erupted, claiming real estate on the colon wall, now the color of a dead red rose. In Super Colon, they look like a child's deflated basketball and protrude even on the ceiling and on its outside wall.

If it sounds creepy, it's supposed to be. A little "gross factor," as Kristy Spade calls it, might persuade people to get screened for colon cancer.

"We've learned that when you have something as serious as cancer, you have to have a sense of humor about it," said Spade, manager of marketing and communications for the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation.

Super Colon is the foundation's two-year-old traveling tunnel that promotes screening for a cancer that's 90 percent curable.

The foundation owns two 100-pound Super Colons. Only one travels at a time.

The foundation brought Super Colon to the University of New Mexico this week for its first New Mexico visit. The visit ends this evening.

New Mexico appeared on the foundation's radar because it's one of 28 states that don't require insurance companies to pay for colon cancer screening.

"So we wanted to take Super Colon to the state and do some good and get the word out," Spade said.

Last year, there were an estimated 880 diagnosed cases of colon and rectal cancer in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Tumor Registry.

The registry's director, Chuck Wiggins, said he has seen no literature on the effectiveness of something like Super Colon. But he speculates it could spur someone to get screened.

In addition to images of advanced colon cancer, Super Colon's vinyl innards offer visitors images of Crohn's disease and colitis.

As they walked through Super Colon on Tuesday, Matt Tennison and Tony Salazar eyed the images with an almost detached curiosity. Salazar poked a polyp.

"I think it's a good representation. It really brings it to life, especially if you're not exposed to this stuff," Tennison said.

Neither would describe Super Colon as "gross."

Perhaps that's because they're second-year medical students at UNM.

"My mom might think it's kind of gross," Tennison said, "but she'd still go through."