Woman forced to remove nipple ring at Texas airport
LOS ANGELES —
A woman who was forced to remove her nipple rings with pliers before boarding a flight in Texas, demanded an apology Friday and said she wants the government to investigate the incident.
“It was just total humiliation in front of people I had no earthly idea who they were,” Mandi Hamlin, a 37-year-old graphic artist from Dallas, told reporters at her lawyer’s office in Los Angeles.
Hamlin’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said the woman “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.”
Hamlin said she wanted a public apology and for the Transportation Security Administration to investigate the incident, which happened in February as she was boarding a flight from Lubbock, Texas, to Dallas.
TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird said he was unaware of the nipple ring incident.
“I’d be really curious to know what this woman had in her nipples,” he said, adding that he had “never heard of any of our people having anyone remove something that sounds as small as a nipple ring.”
Allred said the TSA’s measure was cruel and unnecessary. “The last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.”
AFP
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adaydream
This is outrageous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe that there was really a total idiot who demanded that she remove her nipple rings. This is our TSA in action. Like she was a terror threat. No they just wanted to humiliate this woman.
I have earrings, nipple rings and a penis ring. Inside I'd be going berserk. I'd refuse till I was ordered to remove them to get aboard
Then as soon as I arrived at my destinition, I'd be sueing them for every dollar I could get.
There is a tremendous amount of pain to have a nipple ring replaced. The initial piercing has it's own pain and risk in healing properly, but the repiercing damages scar tissue, additional risk of infection and additional scarring.
I hope she goes for the millions. Damn jerks.
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flammenwerfer
outrageous indeed, a system gone mad. Glad I dont live there. The thing that always makes me laugh is onboard once you got past the draconian and ludicrous nipple ring removing checks there are glass wine bottles on the drink carts, hello glass bottle, broken glass bottle - a viscious weapon..... TSA Totally Stupid Asses
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Taka313
Sing it with me now:
O'er the land of the free....and the home of the brave! (And for the neocons: Gentlemen, start your engines)
Taka
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Nessie
Time to switch to the boob bomb.
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skipthesong
Why a pliers? Last I checked, you just un-clip it and take it out.
additionally, how on earth did they know she even had a nipple ring, I wear an earring when I travel and I have never had the experience of the detector going off...
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adaydream
When they used the wand I'd imagine is when they detected it.
CNN has reported on this. It had a ball between the arc points. She couldn't get it out with her fingers and the other TSA officers just snickered and pointed.
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cleo
Duh. Everyone knows all you need to hijack a plane and destroy a country is a well-placed nipple ring that can't even be removed without a pair of pliers.
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SuperLib
Seems that the better idea would be to not wear pieces of metal on your body when going through a process that checks for....pieces of metal on your body.
But that's just me.
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Taka313
Cleo, The ladies nipples were classified as weapons of mass persuasion. ;-)
Taka
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Taka313
Skip, "...how on eardid they know she even had a nipple ring,..."
Well...when you consider where most guys eyes wander to when in the presence of women, it becomes easier to understand.
Taka
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jambon
You decide: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,342329,00.html http://www.tmz.com/2008/03/27/allred-goes-tit-for-tat-with-the-tsa/ http://www.gloriaallred.com/CM/Custom/TOCAbout.asp
The more one looks at it the worse it gets.
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umbrella
Where is all this paranoia leading to?? They'll be looking up our a***s next. This lady should not stand for this outrageous attack on her privacy. Sue 'em for millions.
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umbrella
You can bet these minimum wage "security" types just love the feeling of power that they are denied in the rest of their lives.
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umbrella
Did Bin laden realise his activities would lead to nipple ring extractions??
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Nessie
Forcing women to remove nipple rings means that the terrorists have won.
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Nessie
Superlib - "Seems that the better idea would be to not wear pieces of metal on your body when going through a process that checks for....pieces of metal on your body."
Actually I'm going to agree with you on this one, which puts us in the minority. I'm strong on civil liberties, but metal accountrements could be dangerous. As long as they enforce this with respect to metal earrings, too.
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umbrella
How is it that gold tooth fillings don't show up on these ultra sensitive machines?? They'll be next for extraction from the airport gestapo detail.
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cleo
What I don't understand is why anyone would want to put a piece of metal through a part of the body that is very sensitive - and that needs no adornment anyway.
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sailwind
I agree with Ms. Cleo, I always thought people who had their nipples pierced were a bunch of boobs also.
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skipthesong
taka: That is besides the point... haven't seen her, was she at least worth looking at? I have very high standards you know.
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cleo
'Before declaring whether a pair of nipples or breasts need adornment, I suggest having a look at the pair in question.' Nah - if they're a nice pair they don't need adornment, if they're not then no amount of decoration (assuming that piercing is 'decoration') is going to make them look any better.
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keech2
Ms. Cleo, a tasteful nipple ring or stud or two can be quite an appealing sight. And can enhance certain aspects of life. If this site had not become slightly more rigid, I would tell you the full story about a female friend, who had to remove a piercing from a certain part of her anatomy, because she was enjoying it too much, just walking done the street, putting away glasses at the bar, skooching aroung in her chair. Almost everywhere. She told me that it had gotten very exhausting and she finally had to remove it. I wonder what she would have done in this situation.
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Sarge
"Forcing women to remove nipple rings means that the terrorists have won"
No, having women unable to pass through metal detectors with metal on their bodies means the terrorists haven't found any chinks in our armor, and therefore, they haven't won.
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cleo
'having women unable to pass through metal detectors with metal on their bodies means the terrorists haven’t found any chinks in our armor' I've been through metal detectors with metal on my body and I never got stopped. The mind boggles and the blood runs cold at the thought of the havoc I could wreak on a plane with a pair of earrings and a wedding ring.
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Wottock_Hunt
I thought this war we're stuck in was to make sure the terorists never change Our Way of Life?
If public humiliation of those who choose to be different from the uniformed functionary is now acceptable, then the terrorists have certainly won.
Step one: Proclaim an internal or external threat. Step two: Aggrandise the self-importance of the petty functionary. Step three: Criminalise dissent.
Hey presto! You got yerself a fascist state. Good work Bin Laden - mission accomplished.
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borscht
"No, having women unable to pass through metal detectors with metal on their bodies means the terrorists haven’t found any chinks in our armor, and therefore, they haven’t won."
Of course for this to be true you'd have to ignore the TSA agents who smuggled bombs on board several planes in the last few months. And the FBI(?) agent who 'accidentally' carried is pistol on board a flight and wasn't stopped. And the 95% of cargo coming in by ship that isn't inspected.
But I agree with the TSA grunts who stopped this potential terrorist; she could've put someone's eye out with those things, you know.
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Sarge
"Of course for this to be true you'd have to ignore the TSA agents who smuggled bombs on board several planes in the last few months blah blah blah"
Amazing how those bumbling minimum wage TSA grunts were able to smuggle bombs on planes, yet al-Qaida hasn't been able to. What gives?
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PuffinMuffin
Why go through so much pain, before and after? If she were indigenous though...don't know what to think, except would they remove pacemakers as well or would they let people utilizing them skip the metal detector stand as usual (last time I saw it anyway)
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DXXJP
I saw a pic of said victim. Looked like a grandma and a heavy one at that. Though she didnt need the shame from the TSA I would hope she wouldn't have to explain them to her grand kids as well.
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Ivespoken
Oh well she'll get over it! Besides she's 37 YEARS OLD! What does SHE need with nipple rings anyway, lol
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Nessie
Sarge, I was being facetious.
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Smythe
Actually a good laugh for me. All comments made it even more interesting. Still reminds me of, around the same year that a Brit was nailed on an aircraft trying to set-off the bomb in the heel of his sneaker.
So my best friends being a Brit/Cdn & his wife Iranian/Cdn were on their way back from Mexico holiday of a month. Yes a Jewish Brit married to a Muslim woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The wife notices said inspectors we next to asking him to "remove his short in public" she thought, so went storming over saying "No more" & had though note she almost has a London Brit accent-------& they demanded she had to take off her boots!! Strange world out there since the big one in NY.
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Zer00
Now... why would they not accept her offer to display the piercings to a female officer in private?!! I guess security was the last thing on their minds! I hope they all get fired!
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Nessie
Anyway, she was not forced to do anything. She was asked to remove the piecing as a condition for flying.
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Ah_so
What if the ring had been somewhere even more private....?
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conqueror_of_Uranus
Leave it to the Aviation Cops to think of a dangerous application for nipple rings.
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conqueror_of_Uranus
If they cannot think of a compelling enough reason to force removal of body piercings, the woman should be compensated fully.
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Triumvere
The TSA is a complete joke.
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Patrick Smash
The answer is to take things like that out before you fly. The liquids rule is far more stupid, but people have given up complaining about that now. I'm glad she was stopped, and just hope that all airport security will be this tight, which it currenty isn't.
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conqueror_of_Uranus
When nipple rings are outlawed, only outlaws will have nipple rings.
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Hawkeye
Anyone who has ever watched the McGuiver TV shows in the past should know that he could have made a deadly tool or device out of this woman's nipple rings and the TSA is just protecting the passengers from bodily injury or even death should terrorists board a plane, each pierced to the max and then remove and assemble their devious device made from those numerous rings and pins.
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dennis0bauer
where they exlosive nipple rings, what is next remove your tattoo before boarding the plane?
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romulus3
they were no nipple rings. they were the pins for the grenades she had surgically implanted. more great work from homeland security.
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pvariel
This is really sad incident.
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Mex
which kind of person will choose to have "nipple rings"? which kind of thinking this kind of person can have? c'mon! and if this kinf of person have a mistake just they say "sumimasen" without feeling and thats it! they fixit, that is first you have to lear the magic word, in the japanese wold "sumimasen"! Good for this rule!!!!!!!they should had choped off!!!!!
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