Woman told to remove nipple ring

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

A woman in the US says she was forced by airport security guards to remove her nipple rings with a pair of pliers before she could board a flight.
Mandi Hamlin, 37, is demanding a civil rights investigation, as well as an apology from federal security agents after being forced to remove a nipple ring before boarding a flight from Lubbock to Dallas in Texas.


During a press conference today, Ms Hamlin said she was scanned by a female Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent using a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of her chest.


Ms Hamlin told the agent she had nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings.


Ms Hamlin said she asked if she could 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 jewellery was removed.


Curtain call
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,” Ms Hamlin's lawyer, Gloria Allred, told the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties.


Ms Allred, who also represents Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills, used a nipple ring on a mannequin at the press conference to show what happened.


“After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove,” said Ms Allred.


Ms Hamlin said she heard the male security agents snickering as she took out the ring, before being scanned again and eventually allowed on the plane.
Ms Allred said Ms Hamlin had filed a complaint to the TSA's customer service manager at Lubbock airport, who said the screening was handled properly.


What the woman had in her nipples

The lawyer said Ms Hamlin was “publicly humiliated and has undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted' because of scar tissue”.


“The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary,” said Ms Allred. “The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.”
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesman Dwayne Baird said he had not heard of the incident.


Mr Baird said the TSA had no specific policy about body jewellery but if it was big enough to sound an alarm, the person wearing it would not be allowed to pass security until the alarm was investigated.
"I'd be really curious to know what this woman had in her nipples," Mr Baird said on CBS.


"Sometimes they have a chain between their nipples, or a chain between their nipples and their belly button. It would have to be made of heavy metal to be detected."


“I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone,” said Ms Hamlin.
“My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way.”


Ms Allred said the incident followed a similar claim by reality TV star Nicole Richie, who said she had her breasts inspected by security at an airport because of her nipple rings.



http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23444817-5014090,00.html

[orange]

According to the security rules, atleast in europe, the female security agent could have checked the woman manualy, ie, by hand or take her aside and see them.

But other than that. Those security agents are idiots. They can just lower the sensitivity on the handheld detector and by the beeps establish that the piercing are small enough to be ok and establish that they are not anything dangerous or forbidden.

How do I know this? Well, I work with it...

The woman is overreacting, as passengers always tend to do, but the agents could have done it a whole lot better.

[Toddy1]

well another case of "trauma" and this woman will recieve a hefty payout for nothing...that does it I am going to get my c**k pierced and give the proceeds from the resulting lawsuit to the families of those who have lost men and women in action over the years (will not go far but every little bit helps)...security guards are idiots as well.

it gets me so mad what people consider to be trauma these days.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Man the world's going nuts.

[Invisigoth]

Man the world's going nuts.

Exactly, I hope she makes them pay.

[Rakki]

The solution is obviously ceramic/plastic piercings that will evade detection :)

At least it was just nipple piercings and not, "down there".

[Chulo]

Man the world's going nuts.
no it was a nipple ring not a prince Edward

[PeterRJG]

no it was a nipple ring not a prince Edward

Prince who?

http://ukfetish.info/?article=117

:)

[Chulo]

Prince who?

http://ukfetish.info/?article=117

:)
i though an Albert was when you got it pierced near the nuts.. ;)

[PeterRJG]

Nah, they call that a "transscrotal" or some such. Sounds terrible whatever it is.

@OP's post - sounds like these airport guys were getting their mandatory weekly dose of jollies. Also sounds like it will backfire on them.

[khalifah]

everytime the words "female","nipple", and "pierce" are used in the same sentence...It makes my day.woot

[Chulo]

everytime the words "female","nipple", and "pierce" are used in the same sentence...It makes my day.woot
i bet "Man" "*****" "Pierced" makes your week ;)

[Wild Dog]

well another case of "trauma" and this woman will recieve a hefty payout for nothing...that does it I am going to get my c**k pierced and give the proceeds from the resulting lawsuit to the families of those who have lost men and women in action over the years (will not go far but every little bit helps)...security guards are idiots as well.

it gets me so mad what people consider to be trauma these days.

Those are differents things , one is going to the war and the other is going to an airport and take a plane to have some good time in other place.
If you go to war , you know that there is a chance of getting killed or captured by the enemy , but if you are just going to an airport you dont expect to that.
Those guards messed up , they could just have asked for help to a female guard.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Why would they even request body jewelry to be removed anyway?

[Buckeye67]

I usually try to keep an open mind when it comes to "law enforcement" related stuff (and I use "law enforcement" in a very loose sense here), but these TSA guys really make me go "whisky, tango, foxtrot" sometimes.

Granted, they're in something of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, but some of these cases are absolutely ridiculous.

My personal favorite is when they were going to refuse to let 86 year old former South Dakota Governor and WW2 USMC pilot & MEDAL OF HONOR winner Joe Foss board a flight with his Medal of Honor. (http://www.snopes.com/military/medal.asp)

[playtym]

It's conceivable that he could have held the ribbon and flailed the pilot to death with the "deadly" star on the other end.

There's more chance of the pilot killing himself with an AD, I think! :roll:

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

I'm telling you the GWOT is not making us safer and we are are losing our liberties in the name of freedom.

[Invisigoth]

I'm telling you the GWOT is not making us suffer and we are are losing our liberties in the name of freedom.

I am so thankful that we have a Supreme Court that has been standing up to our crazy interior ministers and putting limitations on their eagerness to spy on their own citizens.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Even if a person has a small pocket knife. Confiscate it, put in a locked and secure safe on the plane and away they go.

[seraosha]

Fricking outrageous behavior by those security guards.

Same thing happened to me, but when they wanted me to remove my piercings, I made them get their supervisor, and started taking names and badge numbers...calmly informed them that as a vet and us citizen, I was going to enjoy seeing them lose their jobs and pay my way through college, supplementing the GI Bill. I think thats what convinced them that they were barking up the wrong tree. If I was some hippy or goth it would have been a different story.

Walked through with a smile and no shirt.

This was before 9-11 though, so probably a different story now days.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Fricking outrageous behavior by those security guards.

Same thing happened to me, but when they wanted me to remove my piercings, I made them get their supervisor, and started taking names and badge numbers...calmly informed them that as a vet and us citizen, I was going to enjoy seeing them lose their jobs and pay my way through college, supplementing the GI Bill. I think thats what convinced them that they were barking up the wrong tree. If I was some hippy or goth it would have been a different story.

Walked through with a smile and no shirt.

This was before 9-11 though, so probably a different story now days.

Why is ones lifestyle a different story?

[tomonator]

She could have removed her piercings @ home before going to the airport. Would have saved her some trouble.

[Warlord]

What if she gets pregnant and her baby wants some milk from her mammaries?

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

How about NO

In a way our society is going down the path that the terrorists want us to go down.

People are individuals.

And lets be honest does a goth chick or guy for that matter pose a security threat because they have piercings?

Give me a break.

[Laconian]

She could have removed her piercings @ home before going to the airport. Would have saved her some trouble.

Why should she have to? The idea of a nipple ring or bar being used as a deadly weapon to hijack a plane is ridiculous. The TSA screeners blew it on this one. I don't fly all that much, and when I do I don't go through the normal CPs, but I've not noticed signs saying "no body piercing" or "body piercing have to be removed before flight" signs at the airport.

What's even dumber is that they did not make her remove her belly button ring.

[California Joe]

Metal detectors are supposed to be used for detecting metal weapons. While I agree that nipples tend to distract and amaze, I would not characterize them as dangerous.

Did they miss that part of the Powerpoint presentation? Quite an impressive brain trust we have working security at our airports. I feel much safer. Hopefully all terrorists will have some naughty type of piercings for Beavis and Butthead to giggle over.

These morons should all be sentenced to help people in Missouri install cable with firearms.

[tomonator]

Why should she have to? The idea of a nipple ring or bar being used as a deadly weapon to hijack a plane is ridiculous. The TSA screeners blew it on this one. I don't fly all that much, and when I do I don't go through the normal CPs, but I've not noticed signs saying "no body piercing" or "body piercing have to be removed before flight" signs at the airport.

What's even dumber is that they did not make her remove her belly button ring.

Look, from a strictly practical consideration, showing up at an airport screening with metal bits hidden from view is asking for trouble. I'm not talking about her freedom to pierce whatever she likes. I just think she could have avoided this with a little fore-thought. Relying on airport screeners to have and use common sense was another mistake.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

How about airport security go "Oh it's just body jewelry sorry about the inconvenience with the metal detector"

To ****ing easy

[hank]

Look, from a strictly practical consideration, showing up at an airport screening with metal bits hidden from view is asking for trouble. I'm not talking about her freedom to pierce whatever she likes. I just think she could have avoided this with a little fore-thought. Relying on airport screeners to have and use common sense was another mistake.

I still owe you that vinegar and water genius.

I take it from your great comment you did not read the article. She had trouble removing them bc of scar tissue. That would have been true at the airport or at home. That and the fact that its against policy to make her remove piercings. She'll get paid for this and rightfully so.

Note to self - when you take a pro-LEO position that Laconian disagrees with you are probably being unreasonable.

hank

[Bongopete]

You have to use pliers???? jeez!

[Calanen]

Why should she have to? The idea of a nipple ring or bar being used as a deadly weapon to hijack a plane is ridiculous. .

My former girlfriend had a pair of tiny kids plastic safety scissors confiscated from her 5 year old. Man, imagine if someone had got that aboard.

[Laconian]

Oddly enough, this conversation came up at the range. One of my buds responded, "Maybe he thought they were grenade pins." After the coffee came out of my nose, I realized the genious of this - explosive breast implants!" I'm gonna make a mint!

[Bongopete]

Oddly enough, this conversation came up at the range. One of my buds responded, "Maybe he thought they were grenade pins." After the coffee came out of my nose, I realized the genious of this - explosive breast implants!" I'm gonna make a mint!


But could she pull them with her teeth!

[seraosha]

Why is ones lifestyle a different story?

Well, I'm sure this isn't going to come as a shock, but people are judged by their looks and are treated differently.

Security guards treat clean-cut normal dressed soldiers differently than they do freaks, in my experience...but anyway, hope their little yuckyuck was worth their jobs when they made that woman remove her piercings with pliers.

[Andrew Chalmers]

I personally won't be surprised if the "security" who work at my local airport asked someone to remove a steel plate from their head... the TSA is not exactly known for its high employment requirements.

[James]

TSA is full of winners... :cantbeli:

[deagle]

i thought it was unreasonable. if they had LEGITIMATE reason to suspect anything, they should've used more common sense. the metal detector scanned her bod, and it rang at the chest area, she mentioned she had nipple rings.... did she have grenades under synthetic skin or someting ?

security is security, but they should do it with a bit of common sense. and as strict as they try to be, you always here of undercover ppl slipping past with all types of junk (which i think should be kept internal, and not revealed to public of vulnerabilities, and solved immediately behind closed doors).

[eskachig]

The woman is overreacting, as passengers always tend to do, but the agents could have done it a whole lot better.I don't think she's overreacting, the whole affair seems extremely humiliating.

[Ulytau]

Nipple ring..

About myself mostly goin out like a silver mine..but parts will not to be problem..

So if i have piercing in my somewhere if they say remove it or something there will be really big problem rofl

[orange]

I, as I've already mentioned, work with this crap and I can honestly say that far from all of my collegues have an IQ that exceeds 100. And that most certainly is the case in most airports. But then again, you need to be somewhat of an idiot to work with all of the idiotic passengers you come across on a daily basis.

The problem is that most of the sec. guards aren't flexible AT ALL. They're not capable of it. As in the plastic scissor case somebody mentioned above. Yes, scissors with blades that exceeds 6cm are banned. No, you can't kill anybody with a kids plastic scissor. Well, unless your D3L74!1!OMFG!1! that is... And a 5 year old kid isn't!

I for one can't wait to leave this fvcking buisness and do something worthwhile instead..

[Wild Dog]

Well most of those guys are
A)Just doing it to get some money and dont give a dam about security
B)Arym and Police wannabes.
C)Normal ppl that need a job to live the life.

The most of the guards are B and they like to act like rambo or dirty harry.

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

As most of the people on this site know I am a person of a goth persuasion.

A recent photo of myself. I know for a fact I would be wearing a similar outfit on a plane.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/Minardiau/AllanontheBench-1.png



Is what I'm wearing enough to draw attention?

[Rancid]

I think that anyone who fails the scanner for metal piercing should have the choice take them out or fly strapped to the wing with gaffer tape :D

@ Minardiau. So......you're from Tasmainia then ;)

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

I'm being ****ing serious.

We are western civilization. To back down from what we do in the name of security we might as well throw in the towel.

What we should be doing is actually make the restrictions less strict. Yell out to OBL and what not. Hey were still doing what we have always been ****ing doing.

Not making people more or less were hospital garments to board a plane.

[PeterRJG]

Is what I'm wearing enough to draw attention?

Ace Frehley wants his shoes back.

[Wild Dog]

I'm being ****ing serious.

We are western civilization. To back down from what we do in the name of security we might as well throw in the towel.

What we should be doing is actually make the restrictions less strict. Yell out to OBL and what not. Hey were still doing what we have always been ****ing doing.

Not making people more or less were hospital garments to board a plane.

The problem is not what is done in name of the security , the problem is that most of the security guards lacks of common sense

[hank]

Wait a minute. If these were earings would she have to take them out? I see people wearing multiple big earrings every time I fly. What is so unique about a nipple piercing that requires removal? I must be missing something.

hank

[BugHunt]

Id imagine those larfing about the situation wouldve been having the same larf if there GF or wife went through the same procedure with snickering male TSA guards standing around....

Hope she sues them fools for a bomb.

[capixaba]

I get the impression that she had an issue with the security before it went that far, and now is making it into and even bigger deal (and gain some cash in the process!) I have piercings upstairs and one "down below", and I pass through airport security all over the place all the time without my load out setting off any alarms, or even the hand helds for that matter. One thing a lot of people don't realise is no matter how inconvenient or hassle it may seem, best bet is not to p--s the security or customs off - I've seen plenty people mouthing off, and all it gains them is a trip behind the curtains and a missed flight. As for all the stuff about taking them out, it would only be a problem if they were new and unhealed, or if they were really stuck in there she obviously hasn't been looking after her bits! If it was a barbell it's normally easy to remove and re insert, a captive ring requires a pair of circlip type pliers to remove the ball, but not a big deal.
I went on my last company medical, forgetting my pliers, and ended up with some nice xray pics...made into a nice desktop for my office computer...rofl

[Wild Dog]

Your piercing is not in your nipple. Anyway , there was no reasson to force her to take out the piercing.

[capixaba]

Your piercing is not in your nipple. Anyway , there was no reasson to force her to take out the piercing.

It is actually (well one of them!):). I do agree with you though the security were way out of line making her remove them, a quick visual by a female member of staff should have been more than enough. I just the impression something was said or done before it got to that stage, and out of hand. There are plenty folks going around with plenty of metal visible or otherwise hanging off them that don't get into bother.
On saying that,I got stuck behind an old lady one time at Heathrow, and was in danger of missing my connection - she kept setting off the alarms, and was getting pretty flustered... turned out she had had a double hip replacement so was carrying plenty of stainless around!

[CHERK]

In Domodedovo airport (Moscow) they installed new x-rays machines for passengers, you enter the cabin and it scans through your clothes, takes only a few seconds, the same technology is installed in Heathrow airport (London), although they are asking you to volunteer.
I checked specs and it seems harmless, the rays do not penetrate your skin: “10,000 times less dangerous than 1 min on a cell phone”. Saves a lot time and no need for detailed search.

[Bia]

Wait a minute. If these were earings would she have to take them out? I see people wearing multiple big earrings every time I fly. What is so unique about a nipple piercing that requires removal? I must be missing something.

hank

Exactly



Bia