US allows visual inspections of nipple rings

How is this better...

... before she could go behind a curtain and remove it. Now she has to wave them in front of staff for them too ogle at...

I volunteer

I've got a nice thick PA and I'd be only to happy to offer it up for inspection to any snickering low brow thug. I normally wear my kilt when travelling too. I love the look of panic on the security thugs when they see me in the queue.

Deadly body-piercings...

"Officers ... were acting to protect the passengers and crews"

Hell yeah, the damage to life and limb that can be done by a nipple piercing is astounding. Err, usually to the wearer, you say? Not much use to attack someone else? What about the teeny-tiny pins? Too short to even reach the carotid, you say?

Anyway, we all know that Muslim terrorists routinely use body modification in their plans... Err, you say they don't? Body modifications are forbidden by the Koran?

OK, so the TSA are bunch of fuckwits. What, this is the first person with piercings to try to board a plane in the last seven friggin' years????

define: Lubbock

Lubbock: 1: A troublesome piercing. 2: Intimate removable body art.

cf. Lubbock Jubs.

"Damn, my lubbocks are giving me grief. Anyone got a pair of pliers?"

CdC

Isn't Lubbock, Texas the place where the Cult of the Dead Cow was founded?

Title

The nipple ring could cause some serious damage to passengers & crew, providing someone managed to smuggle a pair of pliers on board so she could remove it.

TSA

Always wondered what is stands for, Now I know it is for Tit Searchers Anonymous.

Pass me coat please. Its he one with the dangerous metal zip which could snag the airplane seating and cause a slight thread in the fabric causing the engine to fall off.

Disgusting

How much more degrading is this security crap supposed to get? Bunch of assholes. I hope she sues.

America, land of the free (If you can afford to buy that freedom)

At what point does reality return to their shores. Not that it ever had it.

Nipple piercings have to be removed for the safety of the plane... what would they do with a 1 cm metal hoop of soft metal. Why not remove all wedding rings and ear rings, same thing. Or is it the little pin of around 5 mm that could be used as an offensive weapon.

R'tards... Imagine a plane filled with people and someone grabs the hostess and holds it to her neck going

"....Don't move, I will scratch her. I mean it...."

Never mind a prince albert, what about a clit piercing or as the lead singer of Depeche Mode has one, a pierced perenium. You can't even reach that piercing without help. How degrading do you have to get before someone thinks this is getting to far. Don't medical people need to be around for some piercings to be removed? As it is America, who pays for the complications???

What if you break your arm and have splints,

"sorry sir can you remove those metal splints from your arm, we don't care and are not liable for the medical complications incurred as part of your multiple fractures not healing properly, and we have a pair of pliers for you to do it."

And what of medical implants,

"Sorry sir, can you remove your hip so we can prove you aren't in all likely hood going to pull it out and use it as a blunt weapon. Here we have a pair of pliers and hacksaw for you use.

Or braces... (the dental type)

"Excuse me sir can you remove those braces from all your teeth, have you seen marathon man, here's a drill... And can you keep the noise down while you scream in agony and bleed to death."

To enter the country you have to surrender all rights, all knowledge of your background via website prior to arriving at the airport, your laptop and it's contents and now remove piercings behind a curtain... not even a separate room.

All in the name of protecting liberty.

When the country itself is run by a house who is bought by the one with the most cash and who openly bars members of it's own populace from voting.

Icon because it is nearly April the first... That must be it... Must be, Can't truly have that country filled with such R'tards... Surely.

avoid the issue.

Wear PTFE bars in any piercings that you don't want to show to security while travelling.

Otherwise, what do you think security goons are going to do when the metal detector goes off?

time to get religion

Seem to recall reading somewhere (probably here) a year or two ago about someone in the US who was sacked for excessive piercings ("off-putting to customers") who claimed to be a believer of the "church of body modification" and managed to win a case under constitutional freedom of religion rights!

There's a girl at work...

There's a young lady here at work that is loaded with metal doodads. She's quite slender and extremely attractive. I'd love to go on a business trip with her. My fantasy peaks at airport security...

Freacking morons - the lot of you

Jesus, you lot are a bunch of freaking morons!

No-one is suggesting a nipple ring is dangerous or that it has to be removed. The metal detector detected something metal. That's it's job. The security staff's job is to examine the metal thing and ensure it ISN'T a threat.

How do they do this? Do they ask the embarassed woman to get her tits out in public or do they, as they did in this case, ask her to step behind a curtain, remove them and undergo the scan again? It seems their actions were entirely correct. The same thing happens if you're wearing shoes with metal in them.

No-one is suggesting shoes with metal eyelets are a threat. You have to remove them and be re-scanned to make sure that's what set the scanner off. Or are you all too thick to understand a simple concept? Did you really think you were being asked to remove your shoes because the security bloke mistook them for a deadly weapon?

The authorities are now saying that, if your piercings are such that you can't easily remove them, you have the choise of a visual exam TO ENSURE THEY ARE ONLY PIERCINGS and not something more sinister.

Christ, have you lot ever travelled before or are you permanantly tied to your computers accusing everyone in power of plotting to subvert the progress of human kind?

They were actually pins controlling the safeties...

... on her machine-gun jubblies

Mine's the blue crushed velvet one with the frilly lace cravat

to the person with the apadravya (+best TSA joke)

You could have warned me. Google immediately show you three examples in pictures without the need to hit the "images" button. OOOwwwww.

Oh, and as the greatest (Boyden?) joke goes ...

One person puts a bomb in his shoe and now we all have to take our shoes off at the airport.

Where's the bra-bomber at?

@Anonymous Coward

People with internal metal are usually able to get a medical certificate. The same applies to those with (ahem) intimate piercings.

This new guidance reminds me of one of the opening scenes in "Airplane!" where the security scanner shows the guards exactly what's under the clothing of the more attractive female passengers.

@ Freacking morons - the lot of you

Irony levels... reaching critical...

OMG

So the next aircraft to be brought down by terrorists will be caused by an undetectable and fairly hard-to-remove set of Bulgarian airbags that were stuffed with Semtex instead of the usual silicone or saline.

I seem to recollect reading that the largest implants favoured by exotic dancers run at about 1000 to 1500 cc, so that could potentially be 3Kg or more of high-explosive just waiting to cause mayhem.

I wonder how the security staff will check for that innovation?

No need to explain why the Paris icon I think

Shoes are a potential weapon...

@James Bassett,

You have really got you head buried somewhere. Shoes ARE a potential, if anemic, weapon as (almost) demonstrated by Richard Reid.

The issue in Lubbock is common sense and human sensitivity, both obviously lacking with you AND the TSA. TSA had the option of a pat down by a female agent or removal. They chose the most denigrating option and then snickered about it. Morons - insensitive morons.

Happy flying,

Mike

@James Bassett

"No-one is suggesting a nipple ring is dangerous or that it has to be removed."

From CNN.com:

"Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said."

"Or are you all too thick to understand a simple concept?"

No, that's the TSA.

Where can I apply?

Where can I apply for this job? Plus the one for examining clitoris piercings. I'll leave the PAs to someone else

not news...

that was the policy before, she was simply not informed she had the option and the agents refused to let her do this.

Err sorry folks

I'm quite surprised that google showed images on the search, so please apologise to your network admin on my behalf, and whatever you do don't search for "Princes Wand" as that is just too damn wierd

However on a slightly more serious the complaint isn't about proving what the metal was, but that the security morons actions. Why should she take them out, would removing them improve security on the flight ?

Yeah if you wish to be asked to prove what the detected metal item is then sure wear PTFE. But that wasn't the issue. There are moronic security staff everywhere, but this sounds like they where just trying to be akward for the sake of it and need to be made aware that it is simply not good enough.

If it requires an ambulance chaser to get then job done then so be it, you arn't going to use a lawyer that dosn't get results.

It's my choice to have a piercing and I would display the offending piece of metal to security staff should the need arise, but I would not be happy about being forced to remove it becasue somebody on minimum wage has nothing better to do with their time (or feels outraged that I should be such a corrupt individual).

What next you can't fly with metal zips on your trousers and your trousers are to be confiscated ?

after "Genital Piercings"

... hurumph... I'm not actually a gynocologist, but I would certainly be happy to take a look at it for you.

The TSA

has proved themselves to be the real tits

Typical

Typical of the low-level, low-paid, low-brow security wonks doing this stuff. Incapable or rational thought, or unwilling to entertain such thoughts, they do stupid stuff like this. While I can understand the low-end guy/girl blindly following orders, that's what supervisors are for. But no, let's humiliate this lady, subject her to possible harm and laugh at her. What... she's carrying a load of C-4 in her nipple rings?

This is the America we have become. This type of idiocy in the name of security is rampant all across the country. Since the jobs don't pay much the people in those jobs are, well, not the brightest around. They just follow orders, blindly, without independent thought (if, indeed, they have enough cranium power to actually have any thoughts at all). I don't fault them for being stupid; someone has to define the other end of the Bell Curve, after all. I fault their management and the overall structure as well as the people at the very top who seem intent on turning this into a police state (and seem to be succeeding while Joe and Jane America are busy debating who should win American Idol).

The other day I had to go to traffic court and, of course, there is a security checkpoint. My wallet on a chain was disallowed - "that chain could be a weapon!" Yet the woman in front of me was allowed in with a purse with two 4' leather straps. My small-link chain, at a whopping 8", might be able to strangle a cat, if it didn't snap first.

Chainmail Underwear

Does this mean my chainmail underwear (vest and pants) is likely to cause a problem?

@ Lol Whibley, Jared Earle

Unfortunately lubbocked is already a euphemism for something pretty nasty involving piercing...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lubbocked

& a town in Texas... you couldn't make this stuff up.

Crossbones particularly appropriate.

No way, TSA

The TSA is one of those semi-regulated monopolies embedded in the US government kind of like Blackwater and the USPS.

They are most likely making a certain extra of taxpayer dole every time they do these kinds of things.

What the American taxpayer should know is that they pay for this kind of treatment.

@ Rachel

"So pretty much, you have more of a backwater airport with a couple of idiots who want to press their power just because they can.

I'm sorry, but there are quite a few of these guys who exist in the world."

Rachel, this, and precisely this, is the problem. We are at the mercy of dimwits each and every day of our lives. This, and the corresponding suffering, is a major part of the human condition. We have therefore invented, over a long time, sets of rules—in great variety as a matter of fact—to define what is acceptable, decent, tactful, lawful, in order to protect each other from the more outrageous forms of other peoples' possible behaviours. For a while, the finding of some of these rules was even subject to vaguely democratic principles. Now lately, a subset of idiots—hopelessly beyond tact—has declared that the given rules will either not apply to them at all, or be changed as they see fit, when they see fit, in the name of some pseudo-idealistic goal, without general consensus—and they managed to spread that "backwater" area way, way out beyond its "normal" dimensions. Accepting and somehow learning to deal with the countless retards out there is a normal aspect of life. Allowing the retards to take over without resistance is not.

@Jeff Fraser

Agree totally. I travel with work practically every week to interesting places in the EMEA region, and not once has my PA set off a metal detector.

Whenever I travel I never wear a belt or watch, I always wear soft shoes, and make sure no metal is on me, yet still never it goes off.

The only times I've been randomly screened after a clear metal detector are once at Heathrow with that weird full body scanner thing they were trying, which just had them pull a face like their eyes were going to explode, then quickly whisked me through security forgetting to x-ray my laptop bag, and once at Copenhagen where they just assumed the beep from the hand scanner was the zip on my jeans.

And for those scared of the PA and other piercings, I just dare you to search for sub-dermal beads...

Brother in law's colleague

My brother in law's colleague travelled to America and was stopped at security. She had a doctor's certificate confirming a pin in her shoulder, the wand beeped over her shoulder and she had to take her shirt off in front of everybody before they believed it.

Airport Metal Detectors

I can't count the number of times ive flown through Texas's airports. I currently have 8ga titanium rings and 14ga steel barbells in. I have never had a walkthrough or a wand metal detector be set off by them.

On my most recent trip through Texas, I had just had fresh piercings made the night before and got to explain to the TSA luggage inspector why I needed my 4oz bottle of saline spray for medical reasons. Once I said the word 'piercing' he let me through...

To say the least, there is NO WAY I would remove a body piercing for a security guard. I don't care how high and mighty they might feel they are.

But you can still buy glass bottles of duty free

But you can still buy glass bottles of duty free grog to take on board. WTF

@Mike Banahan - bulgarian airbags

Not new. Basaev's black widows did that two years back:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3596354.stm

Fake pregnancy "bumps" and fake tits. Enough for two airplanes.

Oh, sorry, they are brave freedom fighters, not terrorists. Mea culpa

Works for me...

I have a 5" metal plate in my leg holding my knee together, and screws in it the size of my little finger. Goes fine through scanners at the airport.

But I carry the Dr's certificate just in case.

It's the terahertz wave scanners that worry me... what do they do to pregnant women?? (Or more specifically, their babies)

Even worse

"They chose the most denigrating option and then snickered about it. Morons - insensitive morons."

The saddest part is that lady accosted knew there was an option and requested the feel up... err, pat down rather than removal and the fucking wanks refused. The "change in policy" is double speak to cover the asses of those who said they were following policy. In truth, anyone who had read the policy on the website before the "change," like the victim in this case, would know they are full of shit. It simply can't be said enough, never, never, never a.) trust anyone who works for government at any level or b.) believe anything written, spoken, or carved in stone that was produced by or for any or all government entities.

more metal work....

Thanks to a nice "blind" taxi driver some years ago, I have a hip replacement in my early forties, wire holding my shoulder together, plates and screws in both wrists, and further plates and screws in my pelvis. I do have a doctors certificate, but the one place I've ended up having attention paid was SFO. At the time I was hobbling about on a walking stick. Didn't stop em demanding shoes etc, etc, walking sticks etc .... and they didn't appear happy about the plateage, certificate or not. Nonetheless I made my flight in good time.

Perhaps if the screeners were paid more than minimum wage with decent working conditions they would be more motivated to do the job properly and less motivated to be miserable buggers who excel at what we have here.

As with much of what goes on post 9/11 security screening appears more about perception of security than security itself.

Having said that, after an hours wait in an arrivals hall jammed to capacity with passengers to get through immigration at Miami on my last visit, a hall with no aircon, seats for the elderly, disabled or kids, no drinking water....... I might yet think twice about a future trip.

Bah

Real terrorists won't be caught that way. It's been demonstrated time and time again that this is just security theatre and it won't stop them. Frankly, the whole piercing thing is just retarded. What are they gonna do? Crack it open and check for a micro nerve agent in the tip? You know, something that a russian agent might be using?

Given that the TSA haven't even gone to college, I doubt that.

Why didn't the money just goto the local police, say, to better fund SWAT teams for anti-terrorist threats at airports, train stations, and so on? At least those guys understand the law, and can actually do something about threats.

PS: Fucking wikipedia. I didn't need to see that image. At work, even.

Re: X-ray Machines

"Are not allowed in the US because some privacy groups say it shows to much, then they hooked up a with a fringe medical nu t group that says all those X-rays cause cancer."

Sorry but this is not a fringe medical nut group: X-rays DO cause cancer. The risk is small and acceptable for medically required diagnostics (obviously otherwise they would not be much use!) but I would be against their use at an airport on a routine basis. The increase in cancer risk for routine exposure is precisely why, when you have an X-ray, the technician goes and hides behind a lead glass partition.

While the dosage may be lower at an airport scanner if they only need to penetrate clothes there is a big difference in the risk I am willing to accept to detect potentially serious medical problems vs. the risk I am will to take to get on board an aeroplane.

Is any searching method safe enough?

There are those special radar sets they've tried.

We're told they're safe, but if millions of people get scanned, will they be safe enough?

Metal detectors modify the electromagnatic environment about a person, and somehow detect the effects of a piece of metal.

Think of the Children!

She only has herself to blame

She should have worn TSA approved locks on her jubs.

Re: @andus - to me

As long as it's blue and not red.

</coat>

Gawd's sake. . .

It wuz Lubbock, OK?

Lubbock International Airport, where goats graze the grass growing on the runway.

The morons employed by the TSA at Lubbock are not representative of anything other than local in-breeding, so to all those on here getting high 'n mighty about the state America's got itself into. . . lighten up.