By Ben Cost
She’ll give you three good reasons to love her peculiar appendages.
A woman born with three-fingered “dino hands” has revealed the upside of having only six digits — which include retrieving coins from couches and getting major discounts at nail salons. Videos describing the pros of the courageous gal’s cartoonish condition are currently blowing up on TikTok.
“People always said I have velociraptor hands or T-Rex hands,” Cassidy Laramee, in Massachusetts, told Kennedy News of her tickler trifecta. Thankfully, she has managed to embrace the comparison by sharing good humored videos, featuring her freaky fingers alongside images of dinosaurs against the “Jurassic Park” soundtrack.
In one hilarious clip, the self-effacing Chicopee resident can be seen parroting the movements of an animatronic dinosaur at an amusement park.
Laramee has had only six fingers ever since she was born. “I was born like this on my right hand, on my left hand, it was deformed,” she said. “I had half a pinky [little finger] and two thumbs. I would have been killer at thumb wrestling, but they had it removed when I was a baby.”
!["I was born like this on my right hand, on my left hand, it was deformed," Laramee explained. "I had half a pinky [little finger] and two thumbs. I would have been killer at thumb wrestling, but they had it removed when I was a baby."](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/dino-hand-woman-cassidy-laramee-childhood.jpg)
She added, “I don’t really know what fingers I have [now], I know I have thumbs, that’s it.”
The car saleswoman said a quirky appearance has made her the target of frequent harassment. “In third grade I was bullied out of my school, so we ended up moving and switching schools,” Laramee recalled. “I’ve gotten a lot of different things like E.T. or Ninja Turtle, a bunch of different nicknames.”
“I always tell people, I’ll give you $20 if you tell me a joke I haven’t already heard,” she added.
Unfortunately, the gripper gawking followed Laramee into adulthood. “I work in car sales, and when I shake someone’s hand they’re automatically like ‘ah something’s missing here,’” she lamented. “A lot of people think it’s really cool and ask to touch them.”
But the humor isn’t lost on Laramee, who continued, “I also have really big boobs. I shake their hand, they look at my hand, they look at my eyes, and obviously they look at the boobs, and it’s like ‘where do I look?’”
Before she learned to appreciate her unique hands, the automobile-monger said she avoided nail salons for years after one mortifying incident, in which a nail tech poked fun at her big thumb. “The first time I ever got my nails done I was really self-conscious, because I have one thumb that’s like a toe thumb. It’s a big one,” rued the self-conscious salon-goer. “[The nail tech] joked around and said ‘oh I have to use a toenail [extension] for this one’ and after that I didn’t get my nails done for the longest time because I was just really embarrassed.”
Laramee has since learned to “roll with the punches” — adding that she was inspired by actress Megan Fox, who recently spoke openly about her stumpy thumbs. “I was like ‘you know what, I don’t care, I love me and my toe thumb,’” she declared. “If Megan Fox can have toe thumbs, then so can I.”
She’s also got the gumption to ask for “40% off at the nail salon because it’s less work and it’s less materials,” she noted. By popular demand, Laramee even posted a TikTok video, which currently boasts 1.9 million views, in which she attempts to get a “three finger” discount at a nail salon.
Now, Laramee is cashing in on her “claw hands,” by making molds of her mitts to sell online — which she hopes will inspire others with the same affliction.
“I posted it on TikTok and a bunch of people wanted to buy them. A lot of people asked for silicone ones,” she claimed, adding, “I found out that my hands might have a kink.”
Laramee joked, “I’ll never make an OnlyFans, it’ll be OnlyHands.”
She also DJs at a local karaoke bar under the name “DJ Dino.”
Aside from their humorous marketability, Laramee also described the upsides of her deformed digits, such as retrieving stuff from hard-to-reach places — like a human reacher stick.
“There are definitely advantages, like getting to the end of the Pringles can,” beams Laramee. “If I lose something in the couch — quarters, nickels, dimes — my hands fit down there to get it.”
“My hands are like claw machines,” she quipped.
The condition has left her with some limitations, including weak wrists, early onset arthritis and a lack of mobility, which makes it hard to open everything from bags of chips to doors.
Accessorizing can also be a challenge. “I always wonder what finger I’m going to put my wedding ring on, because I don’t have a set ring finger,” she lamented.
Nevertheless, said Laramee, “I wouldn’t change anything about me for the absolute world.”
“Even the hardships that I’ve been through in my life, they help me become the person that I am today, which is strong and confident,” she continued. “There’s a lot of people out there who struggle with having confidence, and seeing a role model or seeing someone else be open about who they are really helps.”
