No one has yet commented on the fact that removing a piercing with pliers opens the person up to possibility of infection or disease. Even a fully healed piercing could result in an open wound when sufficiently tugged by pliers. Nipples in particular close up almost immediately and thus close into the skin whatever bacteria was on the ring that had to be pulled through the hole after being loosened with the pliers.

This is a completely unnecessary, painful risk and an utter violation of human rights. In this case, she is not complaining about an infection but it is definitely an undue risk, which is why it should never be policy to force removal.

If I had been in her situation, I would have refused to remove them and surrendered my ticket. Then I would sue the TSA for any additional travel expenses incurred. But hindsight is 20/20 and I don't know if I would be able to figure out what my rights were in the moment. I take this story as a warning. In order to maintain control of our own persons, we must be assertive in these situations and not let those that would abuse their power to push us into something unusual or particularly uncomfortable (or even painful). Or maybe just put the ACLU on speed dial when traveling...

Also, it would be nice if the major airline companies allowed you to return to the ticket counter for support if you felt you were being treated unfairly by TSA. In general, they are limited in what they can do. (They could not intercede from me being on the "list" when I was significantly delayed and then on standby... I'm a smoker so I got to go through the "special" search every time I went back in to try to get on a flight... this totaled to about 5 times.) But I would like to think in a case like this, they could at least credit her ticket or get her on standby for a later flight so she could have time to deal with TSA in a better way for her. And anyone there with knowledge of the TSA guidelines or access to them could have helped her out.