Apple Watch Features Defective on Tattooed Skin

Complaints about the Apple Watch by users who have tattooed arms have been flooding the Internet. The issue between the Apple Watch and users with tattoos on their arms first appeared in a post by Reddit user guinne55fam on an Apple thread, states New.com.au.  

The post starts off with, "So I thought my shiny new 42mm SS watch had a bad wrist detector sensor. The watch would lock up every time the screen went dark and prompted me for a password." 

Guinne55fam continues to write, "I wouldn't receive notifications. I couldn't figure out why especially since the watch was definitely not losing contact with my skin. Also I couldn't find anything online with people experiencing this issue." 

"I was about to give up and call Apple tomorrow when I decided to try holding it against my hand (my left arm is sleeved and where I wear my watch is tattooed as well) and it worked. My hand isn't tattooed and the watch stayed unlocked. Once I put it back on the area that is tattooed with black ink the watch would automatically lock again," the Reddit user explains. 

According to New.com.au, problem lies in the "device failing to read the heartbeat of the wearer." The Apple Watch uses green LED lights to detect the blood flow of the user. However, the ink pigmentation from tattoos interferes with the lights reflectiveness and sensor, thereby preventing a good heart rate reading. 

Several other complaints about the Apple Watch followed that of guinne55fam. Users of the Apple Watch also posted complaints on Twitter, using the hashtag #TattoGate, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. The hashtag is a reference to some malfunctions from other Apple products like #AntennaGate with the iPhone 4 and #BendGate with the iPhone 6 Plus. 

Due to the complaints, iMore did some tests on the Apple product. The tests discovered that the Apple Watch reacted differently to different pigments of color in tattoos. 

According to the tests, "Dark, solid colours seem to give the sensor the most trouble." The iMore reports, "Our tests on solid black and red initially produced heart rate misreadings of up to 196 BPM before failing to read skin contact entirely." 

As for the rest of the colors, iMore concluded, "Tests on lighter tattoo colours including purple, yellow, and orange produced slightly elevated heart misreads of 80 BPM (compared to 69 BPM on the wearer's non-tattooed wrist), but otherwise did not appear to interfere with skin contact registration."