Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal

Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Texas woman who said 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 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, 37, 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 she was wearing nipple piercings. The women then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.

Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether 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 out, she said.

She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped 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.

Hamlin 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.

Hamlin filed a complaint, but the TSA's customer service manager at the Lubbock airport concluded the screening was handled properly, Allred said.

Allred said she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize.

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.

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.

"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird said he was unaware of the incident. There is no specific TSA policy on dealing with body piercings, he said, "as long as it doesn't sound the alarms."

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."
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.

Note to self: don't get my balls pierced and then try to go on a flight. Yikes.

Well, the TSA did fuck up, but only to the extent that they did'nt offer a pat down search. However, its rather unfortunate that their policy doesn't all for same sex visual inspection.

What's so inherently dangerous about body piercings that, once identified as such, you still can't wear them onto the plane?

It's the same problem as prison guards. You have people who are in a position to abuse their power and get overzealous. So they do.

I dunno, I've seen some that could put someone's eye out...

Piercings. Sheeeesh!!

This is a subject that makes me feel old. What the hell is the deal with that crap??

I was a rebel in 1980 with not one but two holes in one ear lobe. But I didn't do it to shock the world. Back then you could not buy one earring. So if I was paying for two....gimme two.

Was it your right ear?

So you were into the whole gay scene in the Village then?

No.

If they were going to make her remove her nipple piercings they should have also made her remove her belly button piercing and made anyone else there with ear piercings remove those too.

Someone has obviously confused "TSA" with "T&A".

I was tolerant.

Usually, when you set off the alarm and they can't figure out why, you get a secondary screening and they wand you down. This whole deal smacks of authoritarian bullshyte.

How else do you think he learned about whistling and the grabbing of ankles?

The worst part is, the pliers were probably confiscated from another passenger.

I wonder if this guy had to remove his nipple rings?

I hope so.

I'm surprised no one has asked to see the rings in their "natural habitat".

Whenever I read stories like this I am of the opinion that the TSA goons involved should be dragged out back and pummeled with rubber batons to within an inch of their lives.

Either that, or hauled into the town square (or whatever approximates a town square in today's world) and placed in the stocks for a few days. Nearby street vending of rotten fruit encouraged.

Note to self: don't get my balls pierced

She didn't set off the alarm and she *did* set off the wand. It's weird.

Still doesn't beat that guy who had to get his arse stitches removed before customs would let him through.

I'd like to see them try to make me remove the two metal rods I have in my spine. On second thought, maybe not.

Call me old fashioned, but I just don't don't get the attraction to all the nipple and genital piercings.

Navel piercings, yeah.

And what guy doesn't get wood for toe rings?

I'm fortunate that the docs didn't have to put any metal rods in my spine.

Just duct tape.

I am soooooo glad I was able to freely take my piercing in that area out at will. Pliers? *cries*

Navel piercings have significantly more adverse events associated with them than genital. I would never get a navel piercing.

TTIWWP!

TTIWWP