Nipple Rings a new threat

[BIgDaddyChia]

To air port security

Woman claims TSA forced removal of nipple piercings at airport

By GREG RISLING
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES — A Texas woman who claims she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
"I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin, 37, said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."
Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked if she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was removed, she said.
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped nipple piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.
"Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims.
Hamlin showed reporters at the news conference how she took off the second ring by applying pliers to the torso of a mannequin that had a peach-colored bra with the rings on it.
She said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.
"After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove," Allred said in the letter.
TSA officials said they are investigating Hamlin's allegations to see if its policies were followed.
"Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security," the agency said in a statement.
On its Web site, the TSA warns that passengers "may be additionally screened because of hidden items such as body piercings, which alarmed the metal detector."
"If you are selected for additional screening, you may ask to remove your body piercing in private as an alternative to a pat-down search," the site says.
Hamlin would have accepted a "pat-down" had it been offered, Allred said.
If an alarm does sound, "until that is resolved, we're not going to let them go through the checkpoint, no matter what they're wearing or where they're wearing it," said TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird in Salt Lake City.
People routinely pass through security wearing wedding rings without problems and it might take a larger bit of metal to trigger an alarm, Baird said.
Hamlin filed a complaint but the TSA's customer service manager at the Lubbock airport concluded the screening was handled properly, Allred said.
Hamlin wants an apology from the TSA and an investigation by the agency's civil rights office.
Allred said she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize.
Hamlin was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" because of scar tissue," Allred said.
Hamlin said her piercings have never set off an airport metal detector. She added that she will never fly out of Lubbock again.
"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

 

[GrimmJeeper]

note to self, remove the prince albert for the connecting flight through texas :shiver:

 

[RichP]

No surprise, TSA and Homeland security are growing organizations, in another 5 years they wiil rival DOD and will surpass them in authority. This whole thing has gone from unpleasant to a nitemare and if you disagree we will have to look into your background, job, friends and acquaintances more closely, maybe sweat your boss and his family a little bit and investigate them. Yea, it's headed that way.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

Those must have been some huge rings, I've never had any issues with mine. Flew to Vegas in November for my 21st.

 

[Gerr]

why do I get the feeling they were just being asses about it. how threatening is a nipple ring ........... ok for chipping a tooth its pretty effective but last time I checked you dont die from chipped teeth

 

[RTicUL8]

I've always wondered why my mouth full of metal fillings & crowns never causes a problem.

.

 

[RichP]

why do I get the feeling they were just being asses about it. how threatening is a nipple ring ........... ok for chipping a tooth its pretty effective but last time I checked you dont die from chipped teeth

They did it because they can, those agencies have new teeth and will continue to test the waters and push the limits to see how much they can get away with.

 

[Darky]

My only question is what's a 37 yr old woman doing with pierced nipples? And then going thru "an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" afterwards? I'm not questioning her right to have them or their supposed danger to boarding a plane, just questioning why they're so important to her that she'd subject herself to enormous pain to put em back in...

 

[Bent]

They did it because they can...

And they probably had a good laugh while they were at it.

 

[DeftwillP]

scott...i really didn't need the visual of you with pierced nipples........or of grimm with a prince albert for that matter



ewwwww

 

[BIgDaddyChia]

scott...i really didn't need the visual of you with pierced nipples........or of grimm with a prince albert for that matter



ewwwww

were u listening to 590 this afternoon or something

 

[DeftwillP]

negative
i was witnessing the beginning of a nebraska baseball beatdown on UT

 

[Beej]

This is exactly why I'll pay an extra $300 for a plane ticket that doesn't connect me through the USA.

The nipple-ring ninja will get stopped, but I can cruise through security with a razor sharp 6" plastic knife in my pocket and ain't nobody stopping me...

 

[RichP]

This is exactly why I'll pay an extra $300 for a plane ticket that doesn't connect me through the USA.

The nipple-ring ninja will get stopped, but I can cruise through security with a razor sharp 6" plastic knife in my pocket and ain't nobody stopping me...

Yup, security theater, entertainment for the masses..

 

[Ramsey]

This is exactly why I'll pay an extra $300 for a plane ticket that doesn't connect me through the USA.

The nipple-ring ninja will get stopped, but I can cruise through security with a razor sharp 6" plastic knife in my pocket and ain't nobody stopping me...

They're watching you...

:eyes:

 

[Weasel]

They did it because they can, those agencies have new teeth and will continue to test the waters and push the limits to see how much they can get away with.

This doesn't sound like an agency deal though, you think they handed out memo's on this or had meeting in a black room, to harass everyone with nipple piercings? Sounds to me more like someone was being an ahole.