Malcolm Owen
If you're thinking about getting a wrist tattoo, your Apple Watch may not be able to detect your pulse — but it's fixable with some money and pain.
The Apple Watch, like many other wrist wearables, relies on light to gather data points about a user's heart activity. However, users with tattoos on their wrist can sometimes find that the sensor doesn't work all the time.
In a post to TikTok, a person is seen undergoing a laser tattoo removal procedure on their wrist. A tattoo sleeve covers the wrist, which causes the Apple Watch sensor to fail.
@hwclinicbrugge Did you know that an apple watch and a tattoo are not a good combination #apple #applewatch #tattooremoval #tattoos #asmr #fyp #picoplus #satisfying #picolaser #brugge #hwclinicbrugge som original - maclarao
The laser treatment is performed on the outside of the user's wrist within a temporarily drawn circle. The 15-second clip shows part of the procedure, with the tattoo being vaporized by the laser.
Posted by cosmetic nurse Maryam Khatibi on May 24, the video has so far garnered 3.5 million views on the social media service to date.
Explaining to Newsweek, Khatibi said that the patient had four sessions to remove the tattoo, costing 380 euros ($418).
Blocked light
This is a problem that some Apple Watch users have encountered for quite some time, with reports on the matter spanning almost as long as the Apple Watch has existed.
The Apple Watch monitors the user's pulse and blood oxygen level using a process known as photolethysmography. By shining infrared and green lights into the skin, the sensors in the Apple Watch can detect blood flow.
As red blood can reflect red light and absorb green light, by using infrared and green LEDs and photodiodes, the Apple Watch can detect the amount of blood flow in the wrist at that moment. Thanks to green light absorption being greater with flows from a heartbeat, the Apple Watch can also detect a user's pulse.
Infrared is usually used for heart rate notifications and for background monitoring. Green is used to measure the heart rate during workouts and Breathe sessions.
Apple does warn that "Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact the performance of the heart rate sensor." It's explained that the ink, pattern, and saturation of a tattoo can block light from reaching the sensor, which can interfere with readings.
There are some ways to work around a tattoo, such as wearing the Apple Watch on the opposite wrist if that arm doesn't have an interfering tattoo. It's also possible to connect the Apple Watch to external heart rate monitors, including Bluetooth chest straps, for monitoring during workouts.
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Amber Neely
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14 Comments
Surprised you didn't mention another solution: Oura which is a ring that monitors your health as well.
Natural skin. It does a body good.
Tattoos are the modern equivalent of 1970s bell bottom pants. It's a fad. After a couple generations, people will probably wisen up and stop getting inked like their insane parents. Problem is, when the fad is over, you can't just wist those near-permanent tattoos away like you can throw horrible looking pants into the garbage bin.
People do the dumbest things when they are young. In the past, it was mainly sailors or select folk in the US military who tended to go for ink on skin. Now, it seems like everybody (in the USA, thankfully not here in Japan) are doing the deed, only to later discover the caveats.
Aside from malfunctioning Apple watches though, one would be wise to bear in mind how those tattoos will look in the future. I vividly recall a preacher in church who showed me the tattoos he got in his younger days. They were all over his forearms. I saw them when he was in his 70's, and they looked awful. Ink under skin doesn't age gracefully, let me tell you.
Besides all this, I think human beings are too fickle to get something permanently done. Will you really enjoy the same thing 20 years hence that you enjoy today? I know I don't. Things change. People change. Tattoos change too, but only in a bad way.
What would be really neat is if you could get a tattoo (without pain) that wouldn't wash off in the shower, but which you could remove somewhat easily at home by exposing it to certain light wavelengths. Probably impossible, but the point here is that I realize younger people want to have some fun, but removing that fun more easily later is key. And now to get your Apple Watch working, you have to spend a hefty amount of money, trust someone other than yourself to do the job, and have another painful experience too. Doesn't make much logical sense. Spock would definitely not approve.
Spock would tell you to mind your business and respect cultural differences.