Last August, North West appeared in Rome alongside her mom, Kim Kardashian, in a black corset, a miniskirt, and five-inch platform Vetements boots, but it wasn’t her clothing that drew the Internet’s ire (although that’s happened plenty of times before). It was the debut of a new pair of dermal piercings on her right middle finger. Digital onlookers immediately declared that her choice of body jewelry was “disturbing,” and went so far as to compare her piercing to warts all over Reddit. West—a 12-year-old, mind you—has slyly defended her choice multiple times on TikTok and seems to remain completely unbothered by the backlash. In fact, it appears she’s done it again.
This week, West debuted another dermal piercing on her right hand in an Instagram Story with a photo of herself holding up her fist to the camera. She also released a snippet from a new song titled, “Piercing on my hand hardstyle outro,” and posted a close-up video of her hand on TikTok. But before I hear any flack from the online piercing police, I’d like to ask something: Can we just leave her alone?
For one, dermal piercings aren’t as inherently dangerous as West’s critics would like to believe. For those unfamiliar, dermals work very differently from your standard earring or belly button ring: Piercers use a punching tool to remove a small section of skin before inserting a metal anchor that holds the jewelry in place. They can, in theory, go almost anywhere—most often fingers, cheeks, collarbones, and lower backs—and the technique is designed to create the illusion of a stud that’s embedded into the skin. “Micro-dermal anchors are safe, and the body will hold them for years as long as they’re in ideal places and if implant-grade titanium is used,” piercer Billy DeBerry previously told Allure.
Unlike traditional piercings, dermals don’t have a separate entry and exit point—they sit on the surface of the skin. Board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, says that because of this, they carry a slightly higher risk of irritation, infection, scarring, or rejection, especially when they’re placed in high-movement areas like the fingers. Even so, I’m sure West has access to the very best piercers and doctors in the world (or at least in Los Angeles). With that in mind, a minor infection and potential small scars are likely her biggest worst-case scenarios.
But more importantly, West is figuring out her style as any tween would and should—and in front of the entire world, no less. That includes experimenting with beauty and fashion looks and, yes, piercings (with her parents’ permission, of course). I’m sure getting cyberbullied by the entire world is doing far more damage than a little ring on her finger, so please, have some compassion. (Should a 12-year-old be sharing her life on a public social media account? That’s another conversation, but most mental health professionals would say: No.)
At the end of the day, a small, manageable piercing may be a better way for parents to help their kids explore beauty rather than, say, letting them run rampant in a Sephora. Dr. Gohara agrees: “In context, this tends to be a much smaller dermatologic issue than the free-for-all that can happen in big-box beauty stores, where kids often experiment unsupervised with strong acids, retinoids, and trend-driven products,” she says. “As long as the risks are understood—including the possibility that a piercing may leave a scar or not be entirely temporary—this is ultimately about supervision, education, and self-expression. Skin heals, styles evolve, and not every aesthetic choice needs to be treated like a crisis.”
