Originally Posted by chollie

And who knows how many are pierced (including in areas below the belt) that are dressed in a way that doesn't display their jewelry.

Please read the articles. After she alarmed (hand wand, not WMMD), she did remove any outer clothing. The only way it could have been 'covering' a prohibited item would have been if she'd had prohibited implants. And if you consider that a serious risk, then we should not be letting folks with joint replacements by, because the alleged joint replacement could really be an implanted prohibited item.

So the only remaining clothing she had on was a skin tight shirt? I doubt an implanted prohibited item was the issue, but if she was wearing a skin tight tank top with no bra, then...

I think the real issue here is that some folks find these piercings distasteful and kind of think she got what she deserved. I don't particularly fancy them myself, but I don't think those kinds of likes/dislikes should be the basis for a good security policy. The only reasons brought forward to justify this can be equally applied to joint replacements - visual inspection is not enough, you have to remove the offending item to be certain of the source of the alarm.

No, they can't be compared -- generally, we can pat down the area containing an implant, we obviously can't do that to a nipple ring and surrounding area unless we want to get fired.