WHILE MOST of us have grumbled at what seem like excessive security screening by airports authority - like taking off our shoes, for example - we grudgingly put up with it as an inescapable fact of life in this era of terrorism. Not easy though; I’m still fuming over Los Angeles (LA) airport security confiscating a completely sealed and expensive bottle of Napoleon Cognac, last year, merely because I had it in my hand baggage. Still, I recognised that they were only following orders.

 

Sometimes, however, this blind adherence to following rules causes an absence of common sense, bordering on lunacy - as this true incident will illustrate. A woman in Texas was ordered by federal airport screeners to remove her nipple rings with pliers. Yes, you read that right - nipple rings.

 

37-year old, Mandi Hamlin was booked on a flight from Lubbock to Dallas. She passed through the metal detector without incident. However, later, when an agent from the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) passed her hand-held scanner over Hamlin, there was a beep. Hamlin explained to the agent that she was wearing nipple rings (piercings). The agent would not just take her word for it, which is understandable. What is not so understandable is what followed.

 

 The TSA agent called over her male colleagues, one of whom told her she would have to remove the piercings before being allowed to board the flight. You have to understand that these were not slip on ornaments that would come off easily. Hamlin reasonably offered to show the female agents her nipple rings in a private room. But, the male officers were adamant that she would not be allowed to go aboard the airplane until the piercings were removed. Hamlin was taken behind a curtain and, with considerable difficulty and pain, had to take the help of pliers before the nipple rings would come off. One can only imagine the humiliation she felt.

 

 Not surprisingly, the lady is now hopping mad. “This situation was totally out of control. I will not sit quietly. No one deserves to be treated this way.” In time-honoured American tradition, Hamlin is planning to sue the TSA and has demanded a full apology.