Mandi Hamlin, Gloria Allred find nipple ring removal with pliers brutal

Mandi Hamlin. forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers before she could board an airplane for a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on February 24th, called this Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.

Perhaps she seemed like a terrorist threat to the TSA agent, though it's a far stretch. Hamlin passed through the large metal detector without incident. The female agent used a hand held detector which beeped in front of Hamlin's chest. Hamlin explained she was wearing piercings. Apparently this was cause for a pow wow with the male agents who insisted she remove the jewelry. Explaining she could not remove the piercings, an offer to show them to a female agent was turned down.

Taken behind a curtain, she managed to get one bar shaped piercing out, but had great trouble with a ring which had obviously grown into the skin. "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," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims."After rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove," Allred said in the letter.

Applying pliers to the torso of a mannequin that had a peach-colored bra with the rings on it, Hamlin showed reporters at the news conference how she took off the second ring. Male agents snickered as she took the ring out. She was scanned again and allowed to board though she was wearing a belly button ring. Obviously that wasn't the exploding one.

I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way."Hamlin filed a complaint, but the TSA's customer service manager at the Lubbock airport concluded the screening was handled properly. Allred said Hamlin wants an apology from the TSA and an investigation by the agency's civil rights office.Allred said she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologize. Call me crazy, but an apology seems a small price.

Hamlin was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" because of scar tissue, Allred said.Hamlin said her piercings have never set off an airport metal detector."The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

There may still be a few glitches which need working out in our airport security practices, though I assume like everything else dealing with our safety, it's being handled by trained professionals. Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal