Krystal A. Kelly

Now see THIS is what I've been telling people would happen to me one day.

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 Hamlin's chest, the Dallas-area resident said.

Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The women then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.

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.

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 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.

Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. 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.

"If you are selected for additional screening, you may ask to remove your body piercing in private as an alternative to a pat-down search," the site says. Hamlin would have accepted a "pat-down" had it been offered, Allred said.

Hamlin was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" because of scar tissue, Allred said.

"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

I can tell you from personal experience, it IS painful to remove them and even more painful to put them back in. And unless they are willing to force people with braces to remove those metal brackets, then people who are willing to show their piercings to agents of the same sex shouldn't be required to removed their metal items either. And I would also like to point out that there are ladies' clothing items with metal in them. I have a sweater with a round metal hoop in it. What do they do when a person's clothing sets off the alarm? make them walk through naked?

This is yet another example of abuse by our government. I hope this woman sues. I hope she sues big time! I don't get it, they can't make a woman in a burkha take off her head covering, but there's no problem with making this woman remove piercings or me remove my cowboy hat. Last I checked there weren't any cowboys/girls blowing up airplains. If memory serves, it's the ragheads. But let the woman where her burkha underneath which she can hide a myriad of items...including bottled water (which I can't take with me either).