I read that. It's crazy.

I am not removing my piercings because it is not a clean environment....better not set off the detectors in June.... Ill show em, but I won't take em out!

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Thats crazy, and I wonder what kind of metal she was wearing. Ive never heard of mods setting off the detectors. I wonder what would happen if dermals did? I mean they arent ecxactly a snap to remove....

That's a good point Blazing... I bet they wouldn't even understand why you couldn't remove them either

Omg yikes, I could never just take my nipple bar out!

ugh I'd be livid if that happens to me! Fortunately I never have to ride an airplane anywhere, but maybe once in a blue moon.

The hand wands are generally set way more sensitive than the walk through ones. I've never set off a walk through with piercings, but I have set off hand wands. They've never asked me to remove or even display anything though, they've accepted my word when I said they were piercings. *shrug* Dunno. I doubt they have a firm policy. I really get the Keystone Kop routine in my head when I see these guys in various airports. In general, I find them to be untrained and all over the place in terms of what they are trying to do, without a cohesive objective.

But it makes me feel SO SAFE to stand there in my socks.

ok I read the article and it was in Texas!! What crap! Man, if I had to remove all my piercings simply to get on a plane I'd be one hot person!! I can't believe that crap. Just reading this has discouraged me from ever traveling by plane again.

OK, I'm all about airline security...but WTF? How the hell does the removal of nipple piercings make the plane safer to fly? How does it make her more compliant?

Now that I'm a member of the pierced community, I would LOVE to have them ask me to remove my PA. Sure thing, baby. I'm doin' it right here, right now...ZIIIIIIP!

I usually fly internally, and I've never set anything off. I would totally not take anything out to fly...what the f***. I'm going to hijack a plane with a barbell, obviously.

One thing they don't do there typically is F around. You pull things like that you get thrown in the little rooms while the _real_ cops wander about filling out paperwork on you for three+ hours before letting you go. FYI.

I'm not saying that it is right, but I am saying that it _is_.

The punch line come the NEXT time you come to fly.

Now that I think about it, that one would probably get you charged as a sexual predator anyhow, so you might not get let go at all.

Yikes
I have 3 cbrs and 4 barbells all within 3 inches on my

ladder...* reminds self to use wand on myself at work

tomorrow to see if it sets it off...

I believe there is a catch to that report...I dont see any

reason why she would not be able to "show 'them to a female

supervisor and get thru the security line.the rest of the

story will come out

Yeah, something is fishy there. Piercings do set off hand-held detectors, I have proven that for years. They fact that they don't always is not to say they can't.

There is a section is the TSA regulations that states that you can fly with body jewelry and removal is not required. I was detected in KCMO/MCI once by an over zealous guard. He stated that I needed to "leave the area", remove all of my jewelry (14+ genitals piercings) & go back through security. Honestly, I did try to insist to him that the TSA stated that I was allowed to fly, but he reminded me of Barney Phife from Mayberry... so I just asked for his Supervisor and they resolved everything.

I will try to find the section of the TSA code and link to it. Tens of 1000s of people with piercings fly everyday LEGALLY without removing anything. Sometimes the guards like their positions of power.

There was a snippit on the tv this am, can't remember if it was on the Today show or the Chicago NBC outlet about the story and how TSA was looking into the incident. I think that the airport had hired some leftover Martin rent a pigs.

Great article - thanks for posting it. I've never yet set off an alarm, and wear a 0-gauge PA - also have plenty of surgical steel inside my body from orthopedic injuries that all racing cyclists sooner or later end up with, and neither has that ever set off an airport alarm. But evidently it's possible, and sounds like the way it all ended was good for all piercing-wearers, so hats-off to the complainant who took this all the way.

I have a 4 ga. pa & have flown with it in about a dozen times and have never set off the metal detectors. I guess it all depends how sensitive they have them set. My plan if they did wand me was just to tell them it must just be the zipper on my pants.

That's my plan as well. I was wanded once before I was PDB, and zippers and the little rivets on your jean pockets can set them off.

ive flown loads since i got metal and not once has it set anything off. i just assumed the metal in piercings wasnt the type to set it off. So now all i need to do is manufacture weapons from piercing metal. yay.

Whats great is last October I was flying with my mother and I walked through the gates no problem 20+ piercings. SHE on the other hand set it off. It was her watch.

I was flying home from San Antonio, Texas back to Virgina. I had forgot to take off my belt which had little metal studs all the way around. Of course its going to set the alarm!!

So they use the wand over me, it goes off at my chest. I have 2 bars in each nipple and 2 cleavage rings on my chest. No way am I taking those out to fly home.

So the lady asked someone what to do.. Then I said it might be the under wire in my bra. But since it went off I HAD to take the nipple rings but not the cleavage rings. They had a little heart amd werent going to put me thru that pain.

So I went to the bathroom, no way was I taking out 4 nipple bars and making it to plane on time!! So I just took off my bra and "pretended" to remove my nipple piercings. Went back to her security check point and got wanded again. I set it off, of course! But she didnt know what I had done so off I went to my flight but first to the bathroom to put my bra back on. I was not a happy camper....

I have been stopped in the scanner, and I end up with the wand and they always think it is the zipper in my Jeans, not realizing it is my 4gaPA

id really like to know what kind of metal sets off those alarms. ive got a 4g 3/4 and a 6g 1/2 in my left lobe and i have never set off any metal detectors. even at the courthouse. i would think those would be enough metal in one area to at least pick up something.

My experience is that there is a good deal of variability out there between airports and TSA personnel. I have navel, guiche and PA. I have set of detectors in some airports and not n others. I do remove every other piece of metal i can find on my body and with sometimes choose to wear gold if I am in a hurry and I tend not to have too many problems, but it still does happen from time to time. There is no rule that demands that TSA personnel should ask you to remove jewelry. (as stated above) If you press the point you'll win ultimately; however you will have to decide how much time you have to deal with the issue and whether you are willing to risk missing your flight if they decide they want to be A-holes. They only need to do what they must to determine what is setting off the detector. I have pulled up my shirt, or they have run the back of their hand over my navel piercing (and nipples when I had them). Most have had experience with other pierced people and take it in stride as long as they are satisfied that it is only a piercing - and despite my offers to show them my piercings below they waist they adamantly refused. I have had friends who did have to go behind a screen and drop trou. I have never been asked to remove jewelry. My assumption is that it is someone who has a issue with body piercings in general that demands you take the jewelry out.

They shouldn't make people take out stainless steel piercings just because they get wanded...what if you have a metal hip or knee replacement?...yes sir, allow me to remove a mechanism located under my skin and attached to my bone...just one moment in the restroom and we'll clear that one up....idiots...all or nothing...if it's not big enough to set off the walkthrough, then leave it alone

I can't quite figure out why every now and then something goes off- I mean, I've travel with groups of piercers before with EXCESSIVE amounts of body jewelry, including very large gauge pieces of metal, and never had anyone set off- although one of them had her underwire go off twice! I think as long as when it *does* come up, people stand their ground and refuse to take out jewelry, this issue will go away. I mean, underwire bras go off all the time and nobody would dare ask you to remove your bra at the airport! We just have to be firm about it and eventually we will get left alone.

After I got my reverse PA done I was scared whitless, that when I went on business trips, the alarms would go off when I went through the detectors in front of my colleages. To date nothing has happened. I actually enjoy the risk.

I've got a 00g pa. I just slip in an acrylic ring when I fly. I don't like the hassle from the TSA clowns, and I don't want to miss my flight. Discretion is the better form of valor.

Metal body jewelry will set off their wands. If you strip off all of the other metal, and you're not randomly selected for a "special screening", you'll probably get by. But if you don't, the TSA clowns have all sorts of discretion, and can insist on humiliating you. For me, flights are unpleasant enough - I don't need this too. My recommendation is to wear acrylic jewelry when you fly, and pack the metal jewelry in your bag.

I'm flying in a couple of weeks, so I'll let you know if I have any problems. I doubt I will though since the security in Europe is no where near as strict as America.

I don't understand why they made her remove them though, as long as they checked out what the metal was and saw it wasn't dangerous. What damage can you do with a nipple bar, seriously :| !

I think that some of the agents at airport security are either on an ego trip or their last job was as a burger flipper.

I have yet to go to an airport but I have been through metal detectors at a courthouse. My navel and VCH neither set off the thing! I'm so glad too because my dad and grandfather would have DIED if they knew about my VCH!! LOL!