TSA Forces Woman to Remove Nipple Rings

**Matt Molnar** · 03-27-2008, 09:34 PM

Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal
Mar 27 08:05 PM US/Eastern
By GREG RISLING
Associated Press Writer

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. [Full Article]

**Lezam** · 03-27-2008, 09:39 PM

I guess those guys watched "tsa gangstaz" too many times

**T-Bird76** · 03-28-2008, 08:20 AM

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."

This quote to me seems a bit....off. One of my coworkers I travel with has a pacemaker and every time we get to the checkpoint he simply informs them of the pacemaker and they take him to the side and do a check. Shouldn't this situation have been handled in the same manner?

I will say when you start to have body accessories that you need a Craftsman tool to remove...you may want to reconsider some things in your life.

**mirrodie** · 03-28-2008, 08:44 AM

Dude, why's it gotta be a Craftsman?

Why can't it be a Snap -On?

TSA perverts. I dont care what the excuse. I hope to god there is a lawsuit.

Civil Rights have really gone to ****. So much for America

**Matt Molnar** · 03-28-2008, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by mirrodie

TSA perverts.

Eh, this wasn't exactly the same girl who got kicked off Southwest, if you know what I mean. See video: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=69403

I think this is just a case of pure stupidity on the part of the agents involved, and the TSA's fault for not setting a policy.

**lijk604** · 03-28-2008, 04:33 PM

Um....why was a 37 yr old woman wearing nipple rings? Well, nevermind.
I'm actually behind the TSA on this one, a pacemaker is one thing, "decorative jewelry" is another.
I can't wait for the first guy who has a "Prince Albert" to get caught.

**emshighway** · 03-28-2008, 05:34 PM

Remember you are reading only one part of the story. So lets jump to conclusions and start name calling, that's the intelligent thing to do. There are always three sides to a story.

Males would not be screening a female so I am suspect of the story already. Gloria Allred will get her face on TV any way she can.

People go through checkpoints with piercings all the time. Something else must have happen here...

**emshighway** · 03-28-2008, 05:49 PM

Here is the official statement. Guess they felt like backing down on this one.

March 28, 2008

TSA has reviewed the circumstances related to the screening of a passenger with body piercings that occurred recently in Lubbock, Texas. It appears that the Transportation Security Officers involved properly followed procedures in that incident. They rightly insisted that the alarm that was raised be resolved. TSA supports the thoroughness of the Officers involved as they were acting to protect the passengers and crews of the flights departing Lubbock that day.

TSA has reviewed the procedures themselves and agrees that they need to be changed. In the future TSA will inform passengers that they have the option to resolve the alarm through a visual inspection of the article in lieu of removing the item in question. TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself. We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.

**Tom_Turner** · 03-28-2008, 08:10 PM

Seems to me they "felt" like backing down when a celebrity lawyer got involved, the media got involved and the bull**** application of policy was put under the light of day.

Prior to that, tuff titties for the passenger....

Tom

**maem01** · 03-28-2008, 09:34 PM

I was travelling through Columbus around 2003 and it was a quiet day and the TSA was friendly and someone in front of me asked them about personal jewelry. They mentioned that they have to see it. So he asked the young TSA guy about "Prince Alberts" or other rings on women and he said they would be taken into a room and asked to show the jewelry.

**emshighway** · 03-29-2008, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by maem01

I was travelling through Columbus around 2003 and it was a quiet day and the TSA was friendly and someone in front of me asked them about personal jewelry. They mentioned that they have to see it. So he asked the young TSA guy about "Prince Alberts" or other rings on women and he said they would be taken into a room and asked to show the jewelry.

Yep, private screening. Everybody thinks "well, just take my word for it" like we know all these people going through the checkpoints. Items that alarm need to be resolved, period!

**mirrodie** · 03-29-2008, 12:04 PM

BTW, not that I have any piercings anymore,
but on a tangent

wearing steel toed boots is still OK right? either way they come off in the screening right? is that still the norm?

**emshighway** · 03-29-2008, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by mirrodie

BTW, not that I have any piercings anymore,
but on a tangent

wearing steel toed boots is still OK right? either way they come off in the screening right? is that still the norm?

All shoes come off. The reason is so they can be X-Rayed (for explosives). Obviously steel toed boots would set off the WTMD so they would need to be taken off to clear the alarm via the X-Ray machine.

**PhilDernerJr** · 03-29-2008, 12:10 PM

I dont think anything was wrong with even HER story. It's only her own fault that she needed pliers to remove the thing.

Also...she heard laughter. OH NO! She's assuming, either through her own insecurity or her quest for a lawsuit, that it was aimed at her.

I don't think a "visual inspection" is enough in certain cases. In all honesty, what if I have a piercing in my groin area, and I show the agent a prine albert, and he lets me through. But what if that leave that to be my cover for a weapon that's inserted rectally or something? I would think that the pericing would need to be removed completely to the area and be re-wanded, and then cleared.

People who piercings that will go off in metal detectors should be un-retarded enough to take them off before going through them at the airport.

Where exactly were her civil rights violated?