Apple has issued a statement on its website confirming that rumors about a so-called “tattoogate” are accurate.
Reports that the Apple Watch ran into problems when being worn by a person with dark tattoos cropped up earlier this week, when Redditor guinne55fan wrote how his Watch kept locking and failing to send him notifications.
On the Apple site, the company now notes how, “Permanent or temporary changes to your skin, such as some tattoos, can also impact heart rate sensor performance.” In terms of an explanation it claims that, “the ink, pattern, and saturation of some tattoos can block light from the sensor, making it difficult to get reliable readings.”
This isn’t unique to Apple. Other devices with similar technology, such as Fitbit’s Charge HR, are affected by the same issue.
There is a workaround for those individuals who have tattoos, however, although it stops some services such as Apple Pay from working. Users can turn off the wrist-detection feature, or (if possible) switch to wearing the device on the other wrist if it is doesn’t have tattoos. Another solution is connecting your Apple Watch wirelessly to external heart rate monitors, such as Bluetooth chest straps.
Or, of course, you could just not get a tattoo to begin with. Although it may be a bit too late for some people to consider that.
Source: Apple
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
29 responses to “Apple admits the Watch doesn’t work well with tattoos”
Another reason, besides looking like a jacka$$, for not getting a tattoo.
Agree.
Damn, guess self expression in the form of a tattoo isn’t a valid reason…
You can express yourself, just not while wearing the Apple Watch :p
He’s talking about reasons for “not getting a tattoo.” You have to weigh “looking like a jacka$$” and likely interference with wearable tech (Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc.) against your perceived need for self-expression via a tattoo.
Of course. Understandable.Nothing bad in this. It doesnt work under the water, under fire also. Let the time to the product to get better. Normal. Compare to earthquake issue in Nepal, I think it’s not SO important it doesn’t work with your so trendy tattoo ; )
It’s not watch that’s the problem, it’s the person with the tattoo that’s the problem. Anyway people who wear tattoos have negative IQs.
Really? Negative IQ’s? I have both arms fully sleeved…and a Master’s degree, as well as two Bachelor’s degrees. I think I can safely say I’m smarter then you. But, good luck in your career with 7-11 anyway.
zing! well said Asmodath
Thanks ;) Some people occasionally just need to be reminded that the shit that tumbles out of their mouths makes them sound worse then who they’re trying to put down in the first place lol
Then here’s your reminder, because the data is there to support the negative correlation between education and having tattoos. Pew Research did one such study in the U.S. In Australia, a 2011 study of 75,000 people revealed a strong negative correlation between tattoos and a composite measure of intelligence, including IQ, general knowledge, vocabulary, and empathy.
But it doesn’t mean that everyone with tattoos will have a negative outcome in life. Remember the British scientist with the PhD who landed the probe on the comet? He had two sleeves of tattoos.
I retired from an engineering position in the aerospace industry last year, so, yeah, we all noticed the tattooed guy. It was sort of a ‘W.T.F. was he thinking?’ reaction from most of us. That’s about as common in professional, educated circles as tattoo-free inmates are in prison.
It was Asmodath who took it to the personal, ad hominem, level by writing “good luck in your career with 7-11 anyway.” He also made the mistake of conflating education with IQ. There are plenty of degreed people who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Clearly your degrees were not in English Asmodath. Then != than ;)
Another “non-issue” really.
Wear it on the other wrist, who’s to say watches should be worn on the left or right!
If both wrists have tattoos on them, just buy something else :-)
And yet I am sure that the press and Apple haters have already dubbed it “tattoogate” on some sites.
There goes the samoan market…
lol :)
(actually, samoans usually don’t get tataus on their wrists, but that was funny :P )
Wow, very impressive, you can Google stats and figures. In a boardroom meeting I could be right beside you and you’d never know I have tattoos, they stop three inches above my watch line. While I enjoy my ink, common sense and my “Negitive IQ” made me aware as to how they may be viewed by unaccepting, shallow people. And I figured that out without a search engine spitting out stats. As to you using those stats in your argument to place yourself in the demographic, to say statistically, you’re more intelligent due to your lack of ink, says all that needs to be said I think.
It’s not meant to be “impressive.” It’s simply due diligence. I don’t subscribe to the notion that personal anecdotes are co-equal with data.
In prison, the acceptance of tattoos approaches 100%. I guess prisoners are, on average, just more accepting and thoughtful than people in professional positions.
Except that I didn’t do that. I disclosed my 99th percentile IQ and did not attribute it to my lack of tattoos. Please try to respond to what I actually wrote rather than constructing a straw man.
Correlation does not imply causation (statistics 101).
The tataus seen in prison don’t have much to do with IQ, they’re mostly recognition marks, that’s a pretty lousy example, if anything. IQ-related statistics are most of the time anyway.
One might add that the chances for an ex-inmate to get his hand on an apple watch in the first days after the release (and complaining publicly that it doesn’t do well with tataus) are pretty low. I’d personally go with a perfectly regular guy who happens to like tataus, and to be educated enough to have a job which pays for a 500$ device.
I have a Samoan tatau on my arm.
I also happen to be in the same percentile as you are. I’m a physician who speaks French, English, Spanish, German, futunian (vernacular language of Futuna, the Polynesian island where I lived and got my tatau, btw. Oh wait, did someone say “context”?), and used to be able to babble in Japanese, modern Greek and (this is kind of embarrassing) Sindarin.
You’re right, one can’t cheat with data. And you might even be right about the IQ-tatau correlation. But using it (and your IQ… On an tech forum… How egotistical is that?) to make perfect strangers feel like sh#t (prison ? Really??) tells more about you than your IQ or lack of ink do.
I never suggested that getting tattoos would cause one’s IQ to drop or that a low IQ would cause one to get a tattoo. It’s just like smoking: It negatively correlates with IQ and education — at least in the U.S. and Australia. I can’t speak to other cultures as I have neither data nor personal experiences.
I was replying to someone who, in his first message to a ‘perfect stranger’, wrote I have… a Master’s degree, as well as two Bachelor’s degrees. I think I can safely say I’m smarter then you. But, good luck in your career with 7-11 anyway. If I made him feel like sh#t, I’m good with that.
Indeed. And this person was replying to this pretty obnoxious comment : “Anyway people who wear tattoos have negative IQs”
Artificially putting his post out of its context doesn’t seem fair to me, what do you think?
Thank you. I may have been a little more harsh then was needed, but I was replying to the poster that essentially called me and others stupid just for the sake of doing so.
Did you even bother to read the original post that I replied to? The one that basically calls anyone with tattoos stupid? Was that not intended to make someone feel like sh#t? I simply returned the remark in kind. I have no idea where you fit into it at all. As you clearly aren’t stupid or have tattoos. The only thing you did was was back up the original, ignorant post, and attempt to make me feel bad for being offended in the first place.
Let me start by saying that I appreciate the civility and courtesy of your reply. It’s obvious that you are an intelligent person — with tattoos.
Yes, I read his post and I cringed a bit because I though it was making an outrageous statement as a failed attempt at humor (in the vein of The Onion’s article entitled “Study Links Drinking While Pregnant To Being At Kid Rock Concert”). Not everyone is good at humor online, so I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
But his comment was not directed at you as an individual. You made it personal in a way that I felt crossed over the line. A reply that you’ve met plenty of smart people with tattoos and plenty of stupid ones without would have seemed more appropriate, even if less satisfying to you as the writer.
All I want to know is can a black person wear the watch because they said that a tattoo can affect the amount of light going towards the watch or is it the contrast of dark colors to white skin?
The melanin cells that form human’s skin color is different from ink…
“TattooGATE”?? It’s not as if Apple did something wrong here.