Texas Passenger Furious Over Nipple Ring Incident
A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called for an apology by TSA security agents and a full 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. 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 informed the agent that she was wearing nipple piercings and the agent insisted that she remove them. That was easier said than done: it took several attempts, and finally a pair of pliers, to be able to successfully remove the nipple ring. During this time, Hamlin says she heard snickering from some male TSA agents.
Said a TSA spokesperson: "Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security."
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."
Hamlin wants an apology from the TSA and an investigation by the agency's civil rights office. She has hired high-profile attorney Gloria Allred to assist her and, in a press conference yesterday, said she will consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize.
According to Alread, Hamlin was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted".
"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."
Then again, neither is a tube of toothpaste.