Why does the TSA love my left ankle?

Post date: 2017-08-20 13:23:23

I fly 1-2 times a month, and I generally go through the millimeter wave scanner. 87% (yes I've tracked and calculated!) of the time I've gone through the scanner in the past year and a half, I have been asked to step aside so an agent can pat down the back of my left ankle. I have no idea why! Do any folks familiar with how this works have any idea why the machines might be flagging that specific part of my body so reliably? Answers to your immediate questions inside...

I don't wear jewelry on my ankle.
It happens whether or not I'm wearing wear socks.
I am almost always wearing bootcut jeans, but not always the same brand or style.
I do have a vibrantly-colored tattoo on the inside of that ankle--but I also have a large, colored tattoo on my back and that never gets flagged for patdown.
I have no visible scars or marks on my ankle other than the tattoo.
It happens at all the airports I usually fly through, though much less often at PDX than DEN and SFO.
I only started noticing it about a year and a half ago because until then, I'd been opting out of the scanner, and also had not been traveling so frequently.
I am fat.
I am a cis woman and present as such.

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