Kourtney Kardashian Kicked Off Her 45th Birthday Celebration With A New Piercing

If you want to take the “new year, new me” concept more literally, consider timing a significant life or aesthetic shift with your birthday. You get to start with a clean slate, embracing an entire fresh look to match your just-turned age. Just ahead of her 45th on April 18, Kourtney Kardashian seems to be leaning into that spirit of change with a subtle yet impactful shakeup that underscores her penchant for elegant-edgy style. Kardashian’s cartilage piercing is a gleaming addition to her straightforward ear stack, just spotted in a photo dump posted to Instagram. In true Kardashian fashion, it’s both luxe and attention grabbing, the perfect minimalist accessory for summer.

In the series of photos, Kardashian shared shots of past years’ birthday cakes as well as what appears to be her latest. A bit of detective work was involved her — the one seemingly from her 2024 celebration is not only the first picture of the series, but also the only one featured twice. It was also snapped on a boat, and the Kardashian family just wrapped a big birthday beach trip just days ago. In the shots with that particular cake, she’s posing in a jewel-studded bathing suit coverup, a dangling diamond hoop hooked around her upper ear.

You’d think Kardashian’s glamorous rocker aesthetic, acquired just after making things official with now-husband Travis Barker, would already include a few piercings and even a tattoo or two — not so, though. A careful look back at several closeups of Kardashian’s ears, even when she’s otherwise fully decked out in jewelry, the upper cartilage portion is notably bare.

As far as piercings go, the ear cartilage is a great way to dip a toe into the world of body modification while keeping things relatively low-key and noncommittal. Considering Kardashian’s sister once famously declared she’d stay ink-free forever to avoid metaphorically “putting a bumper sticker on a Bentley”, the slow wade into the trend makes a lot of sense.

Considering Kardashian is still having so much fun experimenting year after year, expect her next half-decade to contain some of her best looks yet.