Body Piercings

Now here is a story that you knew sooner or later would become an issue. This is from FoxNews.com.


LOS ANGELES — 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.


I have not seen an article like this since the new restrictions in airport security went into effect. But then again I don't scan the news looking for articles about women having to remove jewelery to board a flight. But I will bet that this has happened before and I either missed it or it never got reported.

When I first thought about getting a tattoo when I was in the Navy, I had an old salty Chief tell me not to get something that I would be ashamed for anyone to see. I guess the same holds true for body piercings. Sooner or later that which you adorn your body with will be visible to someone that you might not want to see it.

So on one hand I have no sympathy for this lady. You want to wear the piercings you go right ahead. Just be prepared for the consequences.

But I think here I we have a situation that has taught me a lot.

First, I always thought that as the piercing healed that it could be removed easily at a future point. I have an earring and I can easily take it out and put it back in. I guess the same cannot be said for piercings in other locations. I mean the lady had to remove the thing with a pair of pliers!!!! (Note to self...no nipple piercings). I would hate to see that type of removal with a prince albert piercing.

But where do we draw the line with airport security. Should this woman have been allowed to show her pierced breasts to the female TSA officer? Should TSA be allowed to make a person remove piercings if there is going to be pain and anguish involved?

There was a time I was sure of my answer. It would have been on the order of whatever it takes to ensure the safety of the flight. Now I am not so sure.

What do you think?