Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a special interest in body piercings, especially as it relates to travel. One of the first Travel Troubleshooter columns took on the issue of security screening and various kinds of rings. So when airline passenger Mandi Hamlin held a news conference yesterday about her TSA nipple ring trouble, I had a few questions that the otherwise competent reporters in attendance seem to have overlooked.
1) Why are nipple rings dangerous? Maybe this is something my friends over at the TSA blog can answer. Precisely how is one able to use a nipple ring to hijack an aircraft? I’m just curious.
2) Why was Mandi Hamlin wearing nipple rings in the first place? Let’s forget, for a moment, that she was trying to pass through a security checkpoint with nipple rings. I’m just wondering why someone like Hamlin, who news reports describe as a “Texas woman” would want to mutilate her body like that to begin with? I mean, look at her. She doesn’t seem like the type.
3) Whatever happened to common sense? Was Hamlin unaware that they use metal detectors at the airport? Were the screeners who handled her unable to determine that her body piercings would pose a significant security threat? Couldn’t they have called a supervisor before forcing her to rip the rings out of her breasts?
I’m not the only one who is wondering about all this. This is a pretty hot topic on the forums, too. But since we have a heavy hitter like Gloria Allred involved in this case, I figured I might as well ask.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Personally, I’m more confused by the TSA here. People have problems passing through the metal detector all the time these days… Sometimes, you just can’t remove all your metal. When that happens, they have hand wands for just this purpose. Why didn’t the TSA just use those, possibly with a visual inspection (behind one of the ubiquitous porta-curtains) of the, er, “metallic objects”? I don’t see any reason to get her to remove those things once the wand and a visual inspection say everything is fine.
SirWired
Why nipple rings? I have never been asked to remove my earrings. Second, I believe the article I read said she passed through the the large scanner without setting it off. Why then was the woman wanded? Finally, there was absolutely no reason to force the woman to remove the rings. Nipple rings are not dangerous and clearly no more dangerous than an average EARring, bracelet, necklace, etc., all of which we are not generally required to remove.
TSA’s behavior on this one was beyond bad.
I’ve gone through the detectors with my watch and hearing aid on every time, and never once has it gone off. Only once did my keys set it off (scary thought, there). My earrings have never set it off, nor has my daughters. My sister’s eyebrow and tongue rings have never set the alarms off. Apparently, neither do nipple rings. However, this woman apparently got the same jerks that feel up anyone who has the mistake of wearing a underwire bra, using the excuse of security. Of course, this is the same group that blamed their unknown alarming on my 8-year-old’s surgically repaired heart because she had wires holding her sternum together. How ignorant and cruel this people are! This is what happens when you give untrained people power. It’s abused! If only someone would actually do something about it.
Another example of the insanity of the TSA “security”. The TSA should simply be prepared to deal with piercings of all kinds. Ear-piercings are generally accepted, but many younger folks wear tongue, nipple or even piercings in more private parts. It is unreasonable to ask them to remove those piercings every time they travel. Most are not made to be removed. On top of that there are many folks who wear some kind of metal prothese for medical reasons.
The TSA should be prepared to deal with that, in a professional manner that never leads to embarrassment. They should do so without judgment because it is not up to them to deal with medical records, or people’s sense of beauty.
Another question: would a male passenger in the same position have been treated the same way?
Some men do have piercings in very delicate areas, after all. I would love to see how that would handled at a TSA security check point. I can’t see a male passenger volunteering so eagerly to have a pat-down of the area or to show the piercing to an agent. I also think a male agent would be far too squeamish to say “here’s a pair of pliers, take it out!” (How many of you are cringing at the thought?)
My hopes are that this case will call attention to serious abuses so that something can be done about them. I’d hate to see this all disappear with a big fat pay-out.
Thanks for all the comments about this. I will remind my grandmother about her need to remove her metal hip!
1) Nipple rings aren’t dangerous unless you snag them on something. Then they are only dangerous to you.
2) Nipple rings are an adornment, like earrings, but in a more sensitive area.
3) I have rather large stainless steel (2 gauge) earrings in my ears. I have never had a problem going through a metal detector in an airport. A few years prior to 9/11 I had over a dozen body piercings, of which, three were visible while clothed. I never had a problem going through airport metal detectors then, and with only four piercings now, I’ve never had a problem.
The issue isn’t the body jewelry, it’s the power trip the TSA screeners were on and the need for security theater. I hope her lawsuit is successful. I can tell you from experience, removing nipple rings can be a delicate procedure, best done with some lubricant and a lot of care. For some people the piercing never heals correctly and it can be extremely painful to remove without the proper equipment.
Must be the same crew who wouldn’t let me on a flight because of a teeny pair of manicure scissors that came as a cosmetics freebie (they wouldn’t cut sewing thread, much less skin). The blades were 1/2 inch long. Seriously. But my uncle, who was waiting until I cleared security, had to come and get them. However, my container of pepper spray passed without a second look.
Chicky – You and I must have had the same screener. Early in the Age of Screening, a TSA operative confiscated a teeny pair of blunt-tipped sicissors from a sewing kit I had liberated from some hotel. I’d never opened the kit and didn’t realize that I was packing such a lethal object.
Claire @ http://travel-babel.blogspot.com
This is obviously not about safety. This is abuse of power. The TSA officers abused their power. There was no need to embarrass this poor woman and to force her to remove her nipple rings. All the people involved in this unnecessary search should be fired immediately and punished for their behavior. Doesn’t the TSA have better things to do than get sexually aroused from groping and leering? How does this help our national security? This is what we have given up our civil rights for, so a bunch of TSA perverts can abuse their power at will? I wonder how many real terrorists pass by unmolested while the TSA employees entertain themselves patting down “suspects”.
Even if these TSA Agents just felt (excuse the pun!) that they were doing their job, when Ms. Hamlin needed a pair of pliers to remove the nipple ring it might have assured the agents that the rings were not a security threat! My observations tell me that once TSA Agents like these sink their teeth into something, they never back down. There are a lot of friendly, helpful, considerate and professional TSA Agents. How do you get “several” agents in one small airport like this to all agree on such an extreme course of action? I’m sure it’s not the first time these people overstepped their bounds. Also, I hope Ms. Hamlin doesn’t develop an infection given the non sterile environment she experienced. I view the removal of a nipple ring with pliers as a medical procedure she was forced to perform herself. I’d sue and I expect that every air traveler on a jury would find these TSA agents guilty as sin!
One of your statements bothered me enough to write. You asked why the woman in question was wearing nipple rings through a secuity checkpoint and you wondered why she had mutilated per body, as she didn’t look the type. What type exactly would that be? Not everyone with body piercings has a shaved head with a tattoo of barbed wire around the neck. If you object to piercings in general principal, including ears, I respect your opinion, but if the issue here is the placement of the piercing, I am curious how you differentiate.I have body piercings and have passed with no notice through airport security many times. The amount of metal isn’t enough to set them off, although it will be noted during a wanding. I am an experienced business traveler, I speak regularly at conferences, wearing a suit and looking like any other business professional. As I know you’ll recognize from my email, I also contribute to this site. And yet I’m also the “type” to have a piercing.
Just to add a contrary viewpoint here…
Imagine that explosives were carried onboard an airplane in a false bra.
Metal detectors detect the total mass of metal that passes through the detector regardless of where it is located.
Scanner goes off, and then you are wanded from the top down. The wand goes off at the chest area…are you going to assume that it’s a nipple ring, or check to see if it’s a bomb?
Now, what I don’t understand is the requirement of her removing the rings…that goes beyond common sense.
Ed
Tsk, tsk, Chris. What “type” of person WOULD wear nipple rings? My nephew (who has nipple rings)?
In any case, it’s a personal decision. You or I might find it repulsive, but shame on you for stereotyping. (I have a tattoo that my mother finds repulsive. I really like it a lot.)
Anyway, the TSA went nuts. Oh well. Not the first time, not the last.
Ed,
I believe that Plastic explosives do not set off metal detectors. If someone wanted to smuggle some of these explosives aboard an airplane, they could hide them inside their intestines as drug mules do already and assemble an explosive device once onboard.
If we accept that scenario as a real possibility, we would all have to submit to invasive body cavity searches and/or x-rays before using any public method of transportation. Imagine how enjoyable travel would be then. My point is that all these exaggerated security measures amount to little more than window dressing. All they do is inconvenience travelers while terrorists laugh and find easier points of entry.
We are never going to eliminate all possible terrorist acts. We have to make sure we don’t give up our civil liberties trying to achieve an unobtainable level of security. We do not have to turn our country into a police state to have acceptable security.
I have met many courteous, professional, responsible TSA agents. In fact, I’d venture to say these types make up the majority of agents.
Sadly, it only takes a few to give the entire profession a bad name. Reference my earlier post about the scissors. What I didn’t say was that the agent who went Gestapo on me defintely struck me as the type who either couldn’t get in the police academy, or washed out of training. Like the irrepressible Ernest T. Bass of “Andy Griffith” fame, he wanted a “uneeforum.” I think this is when people run into trouble with TSA agents. The ones who want that uniform, that authority, that power, are generally the troublemakers, I’d say. And it only takes a couple to create mass confusion.
It’s sad when the few cause problems for the many.
Then entire airport security system is a sham and I believe that the TSA employees know this and enjoy causing problems for passengers as a way of breaking the monotony of a very dull job. I’ll give you an example of why I believe that it is a sham. Several months ago, I was standing in line at a medium size East Coast airport awaiting my turn to go through the metal detector. I observed a man pushing a cart filled with boxes of food and condiments being waved through the inspection area by a TSA employee. The man did not go through a metal detector and the boxes were never checked. After clearing security, I saw the man unloading the cart at a snack bar inside the secure area. There could have been enough plastique explosive in those boxes to blow up the entire terminal. Weapons could also have been hidden in those boxes as well. The TSA folks didn’t seemed to care. Meanwhile, some of the inspectors were making sure that everyone took their shoes off while others protected us by making sure that a 7 year old kid with a name similar to that of a known terrorist could be delayed long enough so that he and his parents would miss their flight.
Ha ha, Chicky, I hear you. My pepper spray has gone across the country in my hand bag half a dozen times now, but the yogurt had to be tossed!
I’ve seen a TSA Agent, with my own eyes, open an unopened tampax from a woman’s purse during a secondary screening! I’ve also seen a woman sitting at the gate, waiting for her flight, knitting with 10″ knitting needles. They were plastic, but come on…. they were ten inches, 1/2 inch in diameter with a point and in clear view for all airport personnel and security officers to see. What’s wrong with that picture?