# Brave security agents prevent woman from hijacking aircraft with her NIPPLES (RO)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [March 28, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055 "2008-03-28T15:37:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/1 "2008-03-28T15:37:11Z")
[Airport security forced woman to remove nipple rings with pliers:](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080328.wnipplerings0328/BNStory/International/)
> [@](#):
>
> Ms. Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
>
> The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Ms. Hamlin’s chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
>
> Ms. Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewellery, Ms. Hamlin said.
>
> Ms. 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 jewellery was out, she said.
>
> She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.
>
> “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 Ms. 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.
I’m not even sure what to say about this one, so I leave it to you. Enjoy yourselves, and sleep safe in your beds knowing that brave TSA officials are willing to take pliers to a woman to protect the air-travelling public from the horror of nipple-ring-based hijack.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/2 "2008-03-28T15:41:03Z")
It could be worse. What if it had been a clit ring. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/3 "2008-03-28T15:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=article]
“Our security officers are well-trained to screen individuals with body piercings in sensitive areas with dignity and respect while ensuring a high level of security,” the agency said in a statement.
[/QUOTE]
They are trained to do it. They wear uniforms, it must be OK.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/4 "2008-03-28T15:59:05Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra]
They are trained to do it. They wear uniforms, it must be OK.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, thank goodness Hamlin maintained her dignity and respect. Christ, what moronitude! Pervy creepiness and government authority are just a wonderful combination. That the TSA statement bears no resemblance to reality is just the icing on the cake.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/5 "2008-03-28T16:01:00Z")
I hope they don’t start banning nipples from flying now.
Ooh, Flying Nipples! BAND NAME!
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/6 "2008-03-28T16:01:21Z")
To be fair, it seems that straight guys have issues controlling themselves around breasts. The reaction to pierced ones could be a problem.
I for one welcome our pierced tit overlords.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/7 "2008-03-28T16:03:29Z")
I support the TSA. She coulda put the pilot’s eyes out with those!
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### Author:  [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/8 "2008-03-28T16:09:16Z")
[QUOTE=matt\_mcl]
> [@](#):
>
> “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 Ms. 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.
[/QUOTE]
Heh. Gloria Allred. Back again, I see.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/9 "2008-03-28T16:09:57Z")
Be careful where you point those things, Madam!
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/10 "2008-03-28T16:11:52Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E]
Ooh, Flying Nipples! BAND NAME!
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t want to say it, but … TITS ON A PLANE!
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/11 "2008-03-28T16:33:08Z")
The security agents did the right thing. Somewhere, some female secret agent may be attempting to hijack a plane at this very moment with the poisoned needles sticking out of her bosom.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/12 "2008-03-28T16:59:50Z")
Oh sure, you laugh! But those were fake breasts! My money says she had some good-sized blobs of C4 implanted in her chest and the “nipple studs” were electrodes leading to the detonator! Did anyone check to see if she was carrying a 9v battery with her?
TSA & Homeland Security save unknowable numbers of lives every day by identifying and neutralizing threats before the rest of us ever become aware of them.
You people are insufferable! If they had _missed_ the threat and she blew up the plane you’d be harshing on TSA for not doing a good job.
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/13 "2008-03-28T17:04:13Z")
Eh, hiring Gloria Allred as your lawyer instantly loses you any sympathy in my eyes.
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### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/14 "2008-03-28T17:08:20Z")
You know, I walked through airport security last week wearing three necklaces. One of them was a replica of a dagger.\* The “blade” was about the length of my index finger. Not one word, no beep, no thing.
These “precautions” are stupid. Their enforcement is spotty. Metal detectors seem to have varying degrees of working-ness. And. . .jeez, nipple rings, for fuck’s sake! I mean, really. . .that’s just insane. . .
. . .of course, this is the same airport security that took fifteen minutes to pat down my wheelchair-bound, 79 year-old grandmother, so…
\*[sub]I’d forgotten I was wearing it until about three seconds before stepping through the metal detector; if I’d remembered, it’d’ve been in my checked baggage. I was not trying to be a jerk.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/15 "2008-03-28T17:08:27Z")
That’s stupid as hell. I’ve had the same issues and it was easily resolved. But she was in Lubbock, what do you expect?
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### Author:  [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/16 "2008-03-28T17:08:48Z")
Ow. Jesus Christ. Poor woman.
Seriously, what did they think she was going to _do_ with her nipple rings? Shoot lasers out of them? Signal the mothership? WTF?
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/17 "2008-03-28T17:09:30Z")
This happened to someone I know, only the rings were quite new so she really wasn’t supposed to remove them. She had to leave the airport and find a piercing place nearby to have them taken out (the piercing dude was appalled).
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### Author:  [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/18 "2008-03-28T17:14:03Z")
The TSA is going to get pretty fucked on this one unless they pass something making the removing of all piercings including earrings manditory and even then that’s going to piss a bunch of people off, because how on earth is a nipple ring different than an earring besides placement?!?! I have captive rings in my ears that can’t be taken out with anything other than needlenose pliers and I’d be really ticked off if someone decided that I couldn’t wear earrings on an airplane anymore.
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/19 "2008-03-28T17:15:04Z")
All kidding aside, this shit is really beginning to piss me off. I took a number of flights in the last few months, and on the very last one I had something very much like [this](http://www.evolutionbikeco.com/images/ytool_red.jpg) taken away from me - no tools allowed! I didn’t even know I had it because it had been in my bag for months and passed through no fewer than 12 security screenings. But no, the fact that there are absolutely no sharp edges whatsoever on that particular tool (it would honestly be easier to gouge out someone’s eye with a headphone jack than that tool) matters not, I must not take it on the plane!
So I went looking for the rules about what’s allowed and what’s not. There are none. There are no rules. It is entirely up to the discretion of the agent, and I am sure that this one feared that I was a “secret agent” sent by his employer to check up on him … nipple lady may have been in the same situation … why do we put up with this shit? It’s appalling. We’ve gotten so accustomed to it that it’s become a joke, but why do we put up with this shit?
Toothpaste! Coffee! Shoes! Nipple rings! Where have we come to, that we can honestly allow the border agencies to pretend these things are actual threats to our lives? Gahhh!
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### Author:  [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brave-security-agents-prevent-woman-from-hijacking-aircraft-with-her-nipples-ro/443055/20 "2008-03-28T17:20:22Z")
I get hijacked by nipples all the time, if you must know. It is one of the reasons why I am so happy in general. Though sometimes I wish she would leave me alone long enough at least to pay the bills.
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