It’s long been known that tattoos and Apple Watches do not play well together. Dark tattoo sleeves or dark tattoos directly underneath the Apple Watch cause issues with the Apple Watch (and other wearable devices) properly detecting your pulse.
The Apple Watch and similar wearable devices rely on light to gather information about the user’s heart activity. Unfortunately for many users with tattoo sleeves or wrist tattoos, the tattoos interfere with how the watch reads the infrared and green light it emits.
One Apple Watch user with this issue decided to spend a good bit of both time and money to fix the problem. undergoing laser tattoo removal. The man’s Apple Watch sensor didn’t operate correctly, due to the tattoo sleeve that covered down to his wrist.
Cosmetic nurse Maryam Khatibi has posted a 15-second video on TikTok showing the laser treatment being performed on the person’s wrist where the Apple Watch would normally sit, staying within a circle drawn on the wrist. The laser easily vaporizes the tattoo, making a cool sound while it does it.
Khatibi said it took four sessions to completely remove the tattoo, with a total cost of $418 (380 euros).
@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 video has so far collected over 3.5 million views.
Tattooed Apple Watch owners have experienced issues with the device for almost as long as the Apple Watch has been available.
The issue is connected to the way that the Apple Watch measures a user’s pulse, using a process called photolethysmography.
Apple explains how it works in a support article:
This technology, while difficult to pronounce, is based on a very simple fact: Blood is red because it reflects red light and absorbs green light. Apple Watch uses green LED lights paired with light‑sensitive photodiodes to detect the amount of blood flowing through your wrist at any given moment. When your heart beats, the blood flow in your wrist — and the green light absorption — is greater. Between beats, it’s less. By flashing its LED lights hundreds of times per second, Apple Watch can calculate the number of times the heart beats each minute — your heart rate.
Apple also warns that tattoos or other skin modifications can affect the proper operation of the Apple Watch:
Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact the performance of the heart rate sensor. The ink, pattern and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.
Some tattooed Apple Watch users have simply moved their Apple Watch to the opposite, untattooed wrist. Other users have wirelessly connected their Apple Watch to a Bluetooth chest strap to allow for accurate monitoring during exercise sessions.
Unfortunately, Lydia hasn’t weighed in on the subject.