A UK mother has warned fellow parents of a dangerous TikTok trend, after her teenage daughter had to undergo major surgery.
Faye Elizabeth's 13-year-old daughter swallowed 15 magnets for a new "fake piercing" challenge on TikTok.
The social media trend sees kids pretend to have piercings in their mouth by placing magnetic beads on the top and bottom of their tongue or inside and outside their cheek.
The teen was admitted to hospital earlier this month with stomach cramps, with doctors at first suspecting appendicitis or food poisoning.
However, it wasn't long before her symptoms worsened and the girl began "vomiting black water".
"She got an X-ray and you could see the magnetic beads inside," her mum told Today.com.
Her daughter ended up needing emergency surgery.
"She's got part of her bowel removed … it was like two segments of it, so they had to re-stitch it back," the mum explained.
"They also found magnets inside her appendix, so they had to remove her appendix as well. She's now left with just over a 6-inch scar down her stomach."
The mum also explained that her daughter did not swallow all the magnetic beads at once but, instead, it happened on separate occasions.
She said magnets left the girl in severe pain.
"The magnets are all trying to stick together, so you can imagine the pain going on in the inside, with them all trying to pull and stick together," she said.
"She can't eat or drink. She's getting her nutrients and stuff through a drip. She's going through a lot of pain at the minute."
She has urged other parents to stop their kids from joining the "fake piercing" trend sweeping TikTok.
"I've got a little niece and she said loads of girls in her class have been doing the same thing. It's a trend that all the kids are doing," she said.