Nipple Rings Fall Foul of Airport Check (Reuters)
Mar 30th, 2008 by Jefferson
A woman who claims she was ordered by federal airport screeners to remove her nipple rings with pliers demanded an apology from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration on Thursday.
Mandi Hamlin, 37, also called for an investigation into the February 24 incident in Lubbock, Texas, saying that snickering male agents violated TSA policy by forcing her to remove the jewelry.
“I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry,” Hamlin told reporters at the offices of her Los Angeles attorney, Gloria Allred.
“This situation was totally out of control. I will not sit quietly. No one deserves to be treated this way.”
The TSA, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security that was set up after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, said it was investigating the incident but that agents were trained to search people with piercings in “sensitive areas” with dignity and respect.
“TSA is well aware of terrorists’ interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm we discover,” the agency said in a written statement.
The TSA said incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in “sensitive areas” were on the rise and provided a picture of a “bra bomb” that was used in training its agents.
Allred said the incident began when Hamlin, who has a number of piercings, set off a hand-held metal detector and told a TSA officer that her nipple rings were the problem.
Ironically I had a similar experience at the Houston Airport last month. Only difference was I refused to take the piercings out, and informed them I would show them my breasts and that would have to be enough. Never removed the piercings for surgery so I most certainly wasn’t going to start now - not when they could clearly see there was nothing there. Needless to say they backed off and let me go.
Its to asinine what did the morons think it was the pull ring for a hand grenade embedded in her breast