Those with multiple piercings in conspicuous places maybe should either take them out entirely, or put in a spacer until they get to their destination? Come on, anyone who willingly goes through today's security with little metal bits that are unseen on the body while clothed and then resist further questioning are
asking for it!. It isn't like the whole security thing is new anymore and there is a ton of confusion. We've been doing this for HOW long? My sister went with me on my cruise in March and she has piercings in some places that can't be seen while clothed. She is not even 20 years old and she knew that some of them might cause an issue, so she took and put in plastic ones or spacers the night before our flight. She did the same thing the night before we got back into port. The last thing we needed was something to delay us getting on.
The security screeners are not mind-readers or have personal knowledge of your life. They don't know what your real intentions are. Why not just make in easier on yourself and others by just dressing plainly and not worry about how you look?
I don't agree with the security screeners doing the things they did in that particular article. What they described in the article isn't the norm for most airports. I have never had an issue, and neither has my husband, on the few times we have flown on a plane. He's only been asked once to take off his belt, and after that, he just did it beforehand and put it in the bucket through the machine.
The article even quotes "out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide since 9-11, there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints."
That is 0.000055% in 7 or so years.
I think this article is important, but I also think it is not something to be overly worried about.