Kim Kardashian faces backlash after letting daughter North, 12, get finger piercing

Kim Kardashian criticised over North West’s finger piercing (Picture: BACKGRID)

Concern has been raised for North West after fans spotted she had been allowed to get a finger piercing at just 12 years old.

The surface piercing was spotted after pictures of North holidaying in Rome with her mum, Kim Kardashian, in August.

At first, Kim faced backlash for the miniskirt and corset her teenage daughter wore, then attention shifted to the youngster’s hand.

Along with what appeared to be temporary tattoos or brown ink drawings, a glinting piece of metal could be seen on North’s middle finger.

The body modification was met with backlash due to the nature of piercings in that area being so difficult to heal.

‘She’s literally 12 oml this poor girl,’ wrote ConfectionNo1605 on a Kardashian subreddit as fans expressed their concerns.

The mum and daughter duo were out for a meal together last month (Picture: Cobra Team / BACKGRID) North’s piercing looked fresh and particularly painful (Picture: Cobra Team / BACKGRID)

‘Not on a 12yo and I also just noticed that it’s basically on her knuckle which cannot be comfortable 😭,’ added werewolfghost.

North opted for a barbell piercing, which features two balls on either side of her finger above the knuckle.

Dermal piercings, also known as single-point piercings, are more common in this area but are considered riskier and harder to heal.

‘Any reputable place will refuse to do it,’ commented Stupid-Clumsy-Bich. ‘A friend in HS pierced her hand herself because all the places she went to refused.

‘Shockingly, it became infected and she had to go to the ER to have it removed.’

Many commenters worried that the piercing looked infected as it appeared to be inflamed around the ball, a common issue with finger piercings.

TikToker and professional piercer Gab the Gag explained that ‘your hands are the most high-traffic area on your body’.

He said: ‘Your hands touch everything and accumulate so much bacteria. You have so many chances of bacteria getting into that piercing channel and causing major infection.

‘There are nerves, tendons, muscles in your hands. That’s a whole different ball game. Imagine losing mobility on your hands, it can happen.’

He noted that a lot of places don’t allow children under a certain age to get pierced. In the UK, under-16-year-olds can be pierced with a parent present.

Plenty of parents pierce their children’s ears at a young age — although this is controversial — but other body modifications are rarely done.

These types of piercings can take anywhere from three months to a year to heal, assuming the wound is properly looked after and the piercer didn’t insert it too deeply.

Infections, permanent tissue damage, and general irritation and discomfort are all possible, especially on the hand.

Kim has not said anything about the body modification (Picture: BACKGRID) Neither has her ex-husband and North’s dad, Kanye West, also known as Ye (Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Kim has not spoken about the concerns surrounding North’s piercing but comments are disabled on their joint TikTok to shield her daughter.

There’s no word on how dad and co-parent Kanye West feels about the piercing, with the brunt of the backlash focused on the Skims founder.

Kim and Kanye were married from 2014 to 2022 and share four children: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm.

The reality star filed for divorce from the Gold Digger rapper in February 2021, six years after they tied the knot.

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