Looks like we’ll be talking about piercings and tattoos for a while longer.In the news today, an article reports that a woman from Texas was trying to fly home when she set off the airport metal detector. A hand-held detector confirmed that she was harboring something metallic in her bra. She tried to explain, but without success. So Transportation Security Administration agents took her to a back room and she showed them the metal studs piercing her nipples.
Okay, I don’t see the attraction, but she has a right to have them.
Not satisfied with just a peek, the TSA agents required her to remove the studs, which proved to be a very painful process as she had allowed the skin to heal around the metal.
A spokesman for the TSA defended the action, insisting that if an alarm does sound, "until that is resolved, we're not going to let them go through the checkpoint, no matter what they're wearing or where they're wearing it.”
I appreciate the concerns for keeping the flying public safe. I fly three or four times a year, and I like to arrive intact. But I can’t recall the last time a plane was knocked out of the sky by nipple rings!
In my judgment, the situation was “resolved” when the woman showed the TSA agents the piercings. So either the TSA agents were just getting their perverted jollies watching a woman remove her piercings, or we’ve gone WA-A-A-A-Y too far with this whole national security fear-mongering.
The woman wants an apology; I think she could also file a lawsuit. Either way, you can bet she’ll show up soon on NBC’s TODAY show.
(For the complete story, see USATODAY, March 28, “Flier angry after TSA makes her remove nipple ring”.)