This is technically a bit off topic, but I thought the info would be good to pass along since we are they types of people to dance to our own beat (no pun intended) and most likely delve into the wildside a bit more than the "norm". Apparently the TSA has gotten their butt in a crack over having a passenger remove a nipple ring with pliers before boarding a plane.

I love to travel; I love to see my commrades performances and attend workshops; I love my piercings! Yet I've never even slightly entertained the idea that I might have to remove a piercing (or 9) with pliers to do so! I'm surprised with all of the traveling our dancers do, we haven't heard first hand experiences like this . . .

~ Aria ~

LOS ANGELES - The Transportation Security Administration said it
will change they way its officers search passengers with body
piercings after a Texas woman complained she was forced to remove a
nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane.

Mandi Hamlin, 37, had demanded an apology and her Los Angeles-based
attorney sent a letter to the TSA this week requesting a civil
rights investigation.

Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas
on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a TSA 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
agent 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.

Hamlin was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-
shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. She said
the officer gave her pliers to remove the ring, a process which
caused a physical pain.

The TSA said Friday in a statement on its Web site that the officers
properly followed procedures, but that the procedures must change.
In the future passengers can either allow a visual inspection of
their piercings, or remove them, the agency said.

The statement stopped short of apologizing to Hamlin.

"TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the
passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found
herself," the agency said in a statement. "We appreciate her raising
awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure
that this does not happen again."

Hamlin's attorney said she accepted the TSA statement as an apology,
and commended the agency for taking quick action. The policy change
is "an achievement for the protection of passengers' civil rights
while meeting the security goals of the TSA," Gloria Allred said.

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On the Net:

www.tsa.gov