“Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance.. The ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings”. While not all tattoos make the watch behave badly, there are some Apple Watch users that feel that the performance of the watch is actually very poor when you have tattoos. It all depends on what kind of tattoo you have.
One of those very unhappy users is Michael Lovell. With frustrations in regards to his brand new Apple Watch the man posted a video on Youtube this week in which he showed just how bad his experience with the device was. Since it was published online, the video gathered almost half of million views. The watch functions perfectly on his tattoo-free wrist. But after he switches hands and puts the watch on the other one you can see that not only are his heart rate readings “all over the place” but also that the watch keeps constantly asking for a passcode. This behavior is intended to provide an additional security layer in case the watch loses contact with your skin. In case it would be stolen from your wrist the thief won’t have immediate access to your information.
However, in Michael Lovell’s case this behavior brings just disappointment. Apple is however keen to make things work with everybody and has offered “sort of” a fix. In its support section the company is advising users who are experiencing such problems to connect their watch to another external heart rate monitor wirelessly.
