Nipple rings set off metal detector

A Texas woman who recently passed through a metal detector to catch her flight was asked to step aside when the machine began to beep. She was scanned and the only metal to be found was on her breasts. She informed the Transportation Security Administration Agent that she was wearing nipple piercings.

37-year old Mandi Hamlin was taken to a private room at the airport in Lubbock, Texas, and told se would have to remove the jewelry before being allowed to board the flight. Even when Hamlin told officers that to get them out she would have to use pliers to bend the metal, she was handed a pair and asked to do so.

Distraught, she stepped behind a curtain and began to remove them. Hamlin’s attorney said in a letter to the TSA director in seeking an apology and an investigation said, “Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her. After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove.”