TSA: We'll Change Rules About Nipple Rings

Agency Stops Short Of Apologizing After Airport Screeners Force Woman To Remove Piercings

(AP)  The Transportation Security Administration said Friday it will change the way its officers search passengers with body piercings after a Texas woman complained she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane.

Mandi Hamlin, 37, had demanded an apology and her Los Angeles-based attorney sent a letter to the TSA this week requesting a civil rights investigation.

Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a TSA 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 agent 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.

Hamlin was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. She said the officer gave her pliers to remove the ring, a process which caused a lot of physical pain.

The TSA said in a statement on its Web site that the officers properly followed procedures, but that the procedures must change. In the future passengers can either allow a visual inspection of their piercings, or remove them, the agency said.

The statement stopped short of apologizing to Hamlin.

"TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself," the agency said in a statement. "We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again."

Hamlin's attorney said she accepted the TSA statement as an apology, and commended the agency for taking quick action.

The policy change is "an achievement for the protection of passengers' civil rights while meeting the security goals of the TSA," Allred said.

And what does Hamlin think?

"She says it's awesome," the attorney said.

[noregion5]

Anyone question why her peircing was done, get over it, she didn''t have them exposed and we are supposed to be living in a free society, not a society in "up to your standards" of living. It falls under freedom of speech and expresion.

[noregion5]

If you see the visual and indeed it is a piercing, no threat of a her being a potential terrorist, why the removal deemed proceedure? This world has gone mad, madly in need of power pushing civil right impeedant freaks! The attorney probably got off also, for profitting from this type of procedure crud! It is so nice to live in a free country!

[anopinion1]

Do you suppose it is because they plan to x-ray you and a nipple ring is a current loop that would burn the nipple once it absorbed the radiation?

Posted by AntiZion at 11:15 PM : Mar 29, 2008

hahaha no it will not heat up. Please think or do some research before you try to make conversation.

The woman had choices! She could have exercised her right not to be harrassed in boarding an airplane. She could have said , "No, I''m going to stay over in Lubbock instead." Yeah, like "that''ll be the day."

[ianlou]

Question: If she didn''t want people inspecting her nipples, why did she pierce them with jewelry?

We are becoming nothing but a "Lookit-Me, Lookit-Me" society.

Jerry Springer''s job is secure.

[ianlou]

We must be vigilant!!!
Those nipple rings could be pull-pins for squishy plastic explosive implants!!!

I think the new TSA policy should be that agents must give each ring a good yank to ensure they''re safe for the flying public.

[melv1n-2009]

A pair of nipples held me hostage once...mmmm..to back in college again...

[hungryfreak0]

Women hi-jacks plane with nipple ring....LOL! You have got to be the biggest morons on earth. Ever!

I don''t think I wait for the tickets or passport...
Does anyone know how I can get deported?

AHHHHHHHHHH get me out of US and A!!!!!!

I%u2019ve said it before, and I%u2019ll say it again, TSA has a mixed problem. On one hand, we have government employees that have messed up in the past and have allowed things to slip though that shouldn%u2019t have, and the public complained very loudly, to the point of demanding that the TSA worker be fired. Now the guy follows the rules and you want them to be fired. How about making up your minds.

I%u2019d bet that if you were able to read the rules that TSA workers labor under you%u2019d find quite a few %u201Cor else%u201D rules and these will wipe out most of the common sense abilities afforded most of us, because rules are created for the dumbest of us. Yes, rules like this one needs to be reviewed and modified.

What I cannot abide by is the callousness of the male TSA screener to snicker about this within her hearing (this was in another news story). I have worked in retail for a decade, and I know that some things customers come up with are%u2026..entertaining. That doesn%u2019t mean you belittle them. Also, come on, pliers to work on a body? Now that%u2019s real sterile.

[extremophil]

*** it. Just when I was hoping to get hired as a nipple inspector.

[carlylaine]

LawyerTom1:

It doesn''t matter about infections; nothing matters at all....this woman has every right to wear whatever, even if she had a nipple ring that ended up wrapping around her head-it''s her CHOICE SEE? I fail to understand why anyone has an opinion of how a another person ''should'' live. We all have choices. Who cares if you don''t like it? Butt out control freaks!

[caliengineer]

To all the people who mocked this woman in response to the article last week: The power is in the people. WE can change what we want.

Real power is measured by the number of able bodied persons willing to fight. This woman made herself count.

Do YOU count?

[lawyertom1]

I think body piercing is really stupid. It opens up the skin to major infections, as several doctor friends of mine have pointed out based on patients they have seen in their practice. However, TSA was really, really stupid. Where was the supervisor? Where was the sanity of these people?

[kaylag04]

This is the future with Republicrats and Demopublicans increasing the scope of Government "service" and intrusion. This is FEMA, Homeland Security, Social Security, Medicare. etc. - and this WILL be - National Health Care, Bailouts of "foreclosed home-buyers", and increasing federal influence in education. Government is not the answer unless you want inept "one size fits all" bureacracy in every transaction and service.

[erasmus6]

nutsie11

The next time you go into the hospital maybe they can give you a brain transplant while you are there.

[martin9p2]

Now the TSA will need special training to recognize a high-explosive *** ornament or a bomb detonator disguised as a "*** ring".

[martin9p2]

If a breast sets off the detector with no *visible* sign of explosive device, will the TSA be allowed "manual palpation" to rule out that a brest implant doesn''t also have a detonator?

[fibonacci_]

I am convinced that terrorists are going to start hiding things in bodily cavities - I mean, why not? Smugglers do it all the time.

[fibonacci_]

hypnotoad72, looooooooool! Didnt even think of that. Uh, I am sorry ma''am, you will have to take your labial rings out.

[hypnotoad72]

Okay, so nipple rings will be excused. How about the even more cretinous who think piercing their gen!talia is a brilliant thing to do?

I''ll get the popcorn, you get the soda...