It seems that the much hyped Apple Watch has a few misses.
Days after the release of the wearable to customers, buyers took the Apple Watch on its paces, and most of the users observed that when placed on tattooed wrists, the Apple Watch behaves rather differently.
In tests conducted by Apple observer iMore, it was found out that the ink pigmentation interferes with the heart rate sensor of the wearable. The darker the color of the user's tattoo, the higher the chance that it interferes with the Apple Watch's readings on whether it's maintaining skin contact or not.
On the back of the Apple Watch is a built-in heart and pulse sensor that uses LED lights to measure the blood flow underneath the skin. In the support page of Apple Watch, the sensors are described to be "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."
To put it simply, the Apple Watch uses light to measure and check pulses on the user's wrist. Anything that blocks the light, like tattoos, reduces its effectiveness, and therefore the sensors would be out of sync.
For those with darker tattoos, the Apple Watch gave out much larger discrepancies in terms of heart rates, and in some cases, did not work at all. The heart rate issue may be annoying for health and fitness buffs who need the readings during workouts. However, the concern may be remedied by third party wearables.
The problem with the sensor, though, is with everyday use. The Apple Watch, instead of being helpful, would be troublesome for users with sleeve tattoos that are dark in shade. When the wearable detects that it has left the owner's wrist, it always requests a PIN code be entered for the device to be activated. For those with dark shaded tattoos, the Apple Watch would always give out this security notification even though the user has the watch strapped on.
