Kim Kardashian slams critics after 12-year-old daughter shocked with 'face tattoos and piercings'

Kim Kardashian has hit back at criticism over her decision to allow her 12-year-old daughter to 'express herself'.

The mum-of-four, who was married to Kanye West from 2014 to 2022, has opened up about how people don't understand how she has to 'manage certain things from the outside world'.

During a sit-down chat with her younger sister Khloe on her podcast Khloe in Wonderland, the 45-year-old said 'no one knows unless they're in my shoes of what I'm dealing with' when asked about her eldest child.

North, 12, has been posting videos and pictures of her 'shark teeth', blue hair, 'piercings' on her face and body, as well as a dermal piercing on her middle finger.

While the piercings are said to be fake, Kim has faced backlash over the potential health risks of letting her daughter getting it done at such a young age. Such risks include infections, allergic reactions and even scarring.

Kim has suggested that the piercings are 'fake' (Instagram/@northwest)

Meanwhile, North appears to be well aware of what people are saying as she rapped on the track 'Piercing on My Hand (Ye Version)': "All my friends are hits, you know I’m not lazy/You’re so angry that I’m so mainstream. I’m not sure I’m crazy/I want more piercings and tats/I love blue hair put it in some plaits/Put the music to the max/I want like a hundred thousand racks."

People are against the idea of a 12-year-old looking a certain way (Instagram/@northwest)

Over on Khloe's YouTube channel, Kim said she believes the 'misconception that people might have is like, 'oh, she's trying to be her bestie' and lets her get away with a lot'.

"Like, no. Northy actually has a lot of rules," she insisted. "The one area is I do let her express herself, and I do let her do that.

"I love her for that and she would do it, you know, regardless.

"It's funny like people are like, oh, this blue hair all of a sudden or like her fake piercings that she puts up.

Kim said no one knows what it is like to 'walk in my shoes' (YouTube/Khloe Kardashian)

"I have pictures of her when we're in first grade, pre-k, where she'd come with like a fake septum ring and she has her green braids and she has pink braids.

"But she's always loved the colored braids in her hair since she was little."

Kim - an aspiring lawyer - revealed that she homeschools North and makes her do 'a lot of realistic courses' to help prepare her for the real world.

Kim said she is letting North be herself (James Devaney/GC Images)

"Like she really is who she is and always has been that girl and so like I nurture her," she said.

"She is homeschooled and a lot of it is me helping her do a lot of the teachings and the things that we do but we do a lot of realistic courses.

"Things that she's really into - math, we'll give budgets and we'll go around and we'll add it all up and subtract it all and she has a brand building class, you know, it's like an actual course and a curriculum."