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LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation. "I wouldn't wish this experience upon anyone," Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. "My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way." 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...

Tax Collector Mike Olson says the office worker was told not to do it. LAND O'LAKES - Lauren Mixon said she wanted to sparkle - but just a little bit. She wanted to get her nose pierced with a tiny diamond. She checked the dress code at work. It discouraged "extreme" jewelry. She checked with her supervisor. The answer, Mixon said: "It wouldn't be in my best interests." Now some may interpret that one way. Mixon's own interpretation: no one ever said "no." So she had her nose pierced. It hurt like heck for three days. Now it really hurts....

EVERETT, Wash. -- Cindi Reedes heard doctors tell her the same frightening words three times in eight days: Her teenage daughter's chances of survival were slim. It would take a near-miracle to save her from the aggressive infection ravaging her body. The only cause doctors could guess at was the tongue piercing 18-year-old Lacey Filosa got without her mother knowing about it. For weeks, Lacey wavered at the edge of death, kept in a drug-induced coma to give her struggling body every chance to heal. A tube kept her breathing. Operations to cut out the infection were needed nearly every...

ST. PAUL — No more eyebrow studs for underage Minnesotans — at least not unless Mom or Dad goes along to the piercing parlor and signs a consent form. Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a body piercing bill into law Monday, threatening jail time and fines for body piercers who perform work on minors without getting parental consent. The law, which takes effect Aug. 1, doesn't apply for traditional ear piercings. Pawlenty also signed several other proposals that got noticed this year. —Expiration dates and service fees for gift cards will be banned starting Aug. 1, but the law doesn't apply...

OAK RIDGE - A controversial edition of the Oak Ridge High School student newspaper that was confiscated last week will remain banned, school officials announced late Tuesday. A revised version of The Oak Leaf will be distributed to students today, Superintendent Tom Bailey said in a release. Dropped from the retooled edition is an article describing various types of birth-control methods. Hastily put in its place Tuesday afternoon by student editor-in-chief Brittany Thomas is an editorial about a recent school play, "The Importance of Being Earnest.'' School officials demanded the change, Thomas said. "I was told to fill it with...

Wyo. May Ban Facial Piercings in Eateries   Mon Mar 14, 7:09 PM ET   By CURTIS B. WACKERLE, Associated Press WriterCHEYENNE, Wyo. - As if the hair in your salad wasn't bad enough, a city health inspector said there had been "several cases" of tongue rings and other facial jewelry found in the food in the city's restaurants.   It was enough to persuade the Governor's Food Safety Council to recommend banning facial jewelry for restaurant workers who prepare food — perhaps becoming the first state in the country to do so. But despite his testimony, when contacted...

Most pierced: Elaine Davidson, the most pierced woman in the world, shows off some of her 2,520 piercings at the 50th anniversary of the Guiness World Records in London . (AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)

<p>COLUMBIA, Mo. — Members of a sorority were urged to lie about their health to qualify as donors in a competitive blood drive at the University of Missouri-Columbia (search), a school that once set a world record for blood collection.</p>

Damage: Tongue and lip piercings can increase the risk of gum disease, infections and tooth loss, researchers say. People who jab gold studs through their lips and pierce their tongues with silver bars aren't usual eager to hear a learned discourse on gum disease. But Dr. John K. Brooks tries anyway: Oral jewelry, he tells them, can cost you a tooth. "The patients I've been successful with are the ones that had pain and infection. They're much more ready to be convinced," the Mount Airy dentist says. Brooks and two colleagues at the University of Maryland Dental School say there...

BECKY Nyang was left feeling a little down in the mouth after a brush with death when she was struck by lightning on the Greek holiday isle of Corfu. The 26-year-old special service agent for Virgin at Heathrow is still shaken and recovering at her west Reading home after the lightning bolt zeroed in on her lip and tongue piercings. The drama began when she and a friend were forced to flee the beach at Kavos by an approaching storm and Becky was crossing the courtyard of their hotel. She said: "When it hit me all I could see was...