New York: A Texas woman has complained that she was forced to remove her breast-piercings with pliers before she was allowed to board a plane by US transport officials, causing "embarrassment" and "humiliation" to her.

37-year-old Mandi Hamlin said she had passed through a metal detector without problem but when a female TSA (Transport Security Administration) agent at a Texas airport used a hand held scanner, it beeped every time it passed in front of her chest.

The agent called her male colleagues and one of them said she would have to remove her nipple rings before she could be allowed to board the plane, Hamlin told a press conference. The incident occurred in Lubbock in Texas on February 24. Hamlin said she asked the officials whether she could show the piercings in private to the female agent. But they told her she would have to remove the rings if she wants to board the plane.

Reading from a letter sent to Director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties, her attorney Gloria Allred 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."

Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the rings. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring. "After nipple 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, adding she might consider legal action if the TSA does not apologise.

"I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry," Hamlin told reporters. In a statement, TSA said terrorists hide dangerous items in sensitive areas of body and therefore "we have duty to American public to resole any alarm we discover."
Source : PTI