Woman Forced To Remove Nipple Rings At Airport

A woman who was ordered by federal airport screeners to remove her nipple rings with pliers wants an apology from the US Transportation Security Administration.

The 37-year-old Mandi Hamlin has demanded an investigation into the incident in Lubbock, Texas, saying that snickering male agents violated TSA policy by forcing her to remove the jewellery.

Hamlin told reporters the incident began when her piercings set off a hand-held metal detector and she told the officer that her nipple rings were the problem. Quickly a small group of officers gathered around her and said she would have to remove the jewellery from her nipples if she wanted to board the plane.

She then went behind a curtain and removed one of her nipple piercings but could not budge the other, and told officers it could not be taken out without pliers. Hamlin said she could hear the male officers snickering in the background, and her attorney said she "was given a pair of pliers in order to remove the rings in her nipples... the rings had been in her nipples for many years."

"I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry. This situation was totally out of control. I will not sit quietly. No one deserves to be treated this way."

The TSA, which is a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said it is investigating the incident but that agents were trained to search people with piercings in "sensitive areas" with dignity and respect: "TSA is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm we discover."

It said incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in "sensitive areas" were on the rise including "bra bombs" which it trains employees with.

Her attorney called the measures "cruel and unnecessary" and told reporters "the last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

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