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Tattoo-gate? (Are Tattoos causing issues with your watch?)

Mymosa said:
This took 2 days and 3 Apple techs to figure out, and the only way we figured it out was one guy in the support center had a watch. Just found out about this thread.

When you set up Apple pay on your watch it makes you have a password to open the watch. That's fine. When I would put my arm down every time it would ask for the password. That got old QUICK. It was okay when I didn't have the password but some other things were a bit glitch like the Watch going to sleep really fast. I also wasn't able to use glances or anything until I put in a password.

So to make a long story short, All this happened because I have a blue/green tattoo on the wrist I am wearing the watch on!!!!!

WTF???
It interferes with the watch in that regards. SO I now have to either not have Apple pay and wear the watch without the password on my tattoo wrist or switch to my non tattoo'd wrist to have everything work right. It will then only ask for the password if I take off the watch and works as normal and lets me do apple pay.

So now I told them and spread to word that if you have a tattoo on your watch wrist funny things may happen

smh - btw I have the Watch, not sport, with the sapphire
crystal and the traditional black buckle
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Interesting. The watch doesn't even look as if it's entirely over your tattoo. So was it confirmed somehow that it was the blue/green color?
 
alhumphrey said:
I don't have any tattoos but as a lighting designer I can only speculate it might be down to the colour of your tattoos. The green leds that are used to detect your heartbeat could have there light wave adversely absorbed if you have a green tattoo or increased of red due to the effect of the wave length of light. Black tattoos would hamper the transmission of light and would give a faint reading but the watch support pages say it can adapt to faint readings.
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See my post below the only thing it affected was the frequent locking when a password was on so I could use Apple pay.

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lexic said:
Interesting. The watch doesn't even look as if it's entirely over your tattoo. So was it confirmed somehow that it was the blue/green color?
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When I'm telling you we did everything in the book and even invented new things to try to fix it, that was the only thing that stopped the problem

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kovey said:
There's always the option to laser off that awesome... fish(?) tattoo.
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Its actually a cover up from a horrible rose tattoo!! I'm good!! I'm glad they don't have Apple "Ishirt" because It wouldn't work on my arms!! yup its a Koi fish.

Thanks btw :)
 
When I'm telling you we did everything in the book and even invented new things to try to fix it, that was the only thing that stopped the problem
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I understand that. I'm just wondering if they somehow could say this was interference from that color ink. My red/orange/yellow/black tattoo doesn't affect it. I actually just tried moving my watch around to different colored areas of my arm and couldn't get it to relock after putting in my pin. Maybe it's something in that particular ink's ingredients. I don't know. I just am interested (and happy I don't have issues.)
 
LNYMRKO said:
Good point! It certainly seems to be an isolated issue going from the few replies I've seen in here nobody has had an issue with it.. and I assume it would have come up by now if it was more widespread, but I figured it was worth mentioning anyway in case others were having similar issues (and couldn't figure out why).
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Wow. The mods cleaned up non-silly replies as well, because mine is gone. I said nothing derogatory about tattoos (I have one!), indicated that I thought the article made sense (the part about light reflecting differently off of tattoo ink), and that I didn't believe that this makes the situation a "gate", meaning I don't think that this could be considered a flaw in the watch.

NO idea why that comment was deemed inappropriate. A little offended, really.

OOps. I quoted the wrong post.
 
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Tattoo's and skin melanin

Wow It looks like they removed my comment about skin color and the effects of the watch.

Being Black myself but lighter skinned and having a tattoo where there was an issue, I am genuinely wondering if it would be an issue with someone with darker skin especially if they had a tattoo.

I know that is NOT a racist statement. It goes with the comment about the melanin and how the reflection with that and the tattoo color could affect the watch.

It seems people aren't having issues yet but I AM and I would like to find out if skin tone is part of the issue.

Don't remove a post just because I said dark skinned.

I'm a social worker and a professor who teaches a racism class and would be the first one to call someone out on a racist statement.
 
Im having the same issues when wearing the watch on my right wrist which is heavily tattoo'd with black ink.

Works perfectly fine on my left wrist which has no tattoos.

I couldn't understand since friday why there was issues with the passcode always needing to be entered.

I went for a run this morning using the workout app and that kept pausing every few seconds.

When i got home, i called apple technical support who have said they will replace it.
 
mooooof said:
Im having the same issues when wearing the watch on my right wrist which is heavily tattoo'd with black ink.

Works perfectly fine on my left wrist which has no tattoos.

I couldn't understand since friday why there was issues with the passcode always needing to be entered.

I went for a run this morning using the workout app and that kept pausing every few seconds.

When i got home, i called apple technical support who have said they will replace it.
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I wonder if that will solve the issue? From reading theses posts I unfortunately don't think it will.
 
Wow I hope my Bunch of Baby Ducks from Regular Show don't get in the way of my watch readings.
 
xxchefxx said:
I wonder if that will solve the issue? From reading theses posts I unfortunately don't think it will.
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I didn't realise it was tattoo related until after the call and them saying they will replace it.

I'm uploading a video to youtube right now and will post it once its completed
 
mooooof said:
Im having the same issues when wearing the watch on my right wrist which is heavily tattoo'd with black ink.

Works perfectly fine on my left wrist which has no tattoos.

I couldn't understand since Friday why there was issues with the passcode always needing to be entered.

I went for a run this morning using the workout app and that kept pausing every few seconds.

When i got home, i called apple technical support who have said they will replace it.
Click to expand...


I noticed a problem on Saturday, pausing in the workout app. I then noticed the same passcode issue.

I have a tattoo under the watch. I turned off wrist detection and it solves the problem.

But not the fact that Apple withheld information about this from us.

I am waiting for engineering to call me back as support couldn't workout what was wrong.

I literally worked it out this morning, now seeing all these posts.

I'm pretty annoyed.
 
LNYMRKO said:
Interesting read, as someone who is heavily tattooed (sleeves all the way down to fingers) I'd like to know more, as I'm keen to buy one. I did a try-on appointment however all the watches I tried on were in "demo" mode so I couldn't really use them on my wrist. Can any Apple Watch owners with wrist tattoos confirm anything? Pics would be ideal to show your wrist tattoos if possible!

With a variety of bands, and price tags ranging all the way from $349 – $17,000, there’s an Apple Watch for everyone. Except, possibly, the heavily tattooed.
That’s according to a new thread on Reddit which claims that several tattoo-sporting Apple Watch customers are having trouble using the device, because the wearable’s wrist-detection feature gets confused by the way in which tattoos reflect the green and infrared light emitted by the Watch.
The result? People with tattoos don’t get notifications, unless they move the Watch to an un-tattooed area, or turn off wrist detection. Not exactly ideal for those with full sleeves!
“I thought my shiny new 42mm [Watch] had a bad wrist detector sensor,” writes one user. “The [W]atch would lock up every time the screen went dark and prompted me for my password. I wouldn’t receive notifications. I couldn’t figure out why especially since the watch was definitely not losing contact with my skin. [A]lso I couldn’t find anything online with people experiencing this issue. I was about to give up and call Apple … when I decided to try holding it against my hand (my left arm is sleeved and where I wear my watch is tattooed as well) and it worked. My hand isn’t tattooed and the Watch stayed unlocked. Once I put it back on the area that is tattooed with black ink the watch would automatically lock again.”
As a possible explanation, another Redditor writes that:
“Oxyhemoglobin has several local peaks of absorbance which can be used for pulse oximetry: one green, one yellow, one infrared, etc. Apple uses the ones at infrared and green parts of the spectrum. Now, here’s some key facts. Melanin and ink are both equally good at absorbing frequencies over 500nm, which sadly includes the green. But, melanin’s absorbance falls down so rapidly that by the infrared end of the spectrum its hardly absorbing anything at all. That, combined with the fact that Apple adjusts the sensitivity/light level dynamically means infrared is probably black people friendly. Ink has a much more gradual fall off, so even infrared might not work for them.”
While it’s possible to turn off the wrist detection feature, this also stops Apple Pay from working. We’ve reached out to Apple to ask if this is a problem that’s been reported elsewhere, and will update this post when we hear back.
Tattoo-gate, anyone?

Source: http://www.cultofmac.com/320924/key-apple-watch-features-may-not-work-for-users-with-tattoos/

Image
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So as I posted below with pictures I do have issues with the watch locking up on me instantly when I have the password on so I can use apple pay. Initially I posted that the Apple team after 2 days figured out it was the tattoo.
Now they called me again today and said that that wasn't the cause and that it will probably bee addressed by an update soon. Because this issue went on so long and I can't use the password function properly they have sent me out a free band to compensate me.

I still wonder if skin color has anything to do with it as well as possibly the tattoo color since he said it was not the tattoo alone. I'm black but lighter/medium skinned as you can see in the pics below.It sounds like this is a bigger issue. At least I get a free sport band out of the deal!
The saga continues.

btw I did just realize I am not getting notifications also.
 
Compensation

shambles247 said:
I noticed a problem on Saturday, pausing in the workout app. I then noticed the same passcode issue.

I have a tattoo under the watch. I turned off wrist detection and it solves the problem.

But not the fact that Apple withheld information about this from us.

I am waiting for engineering to call me back as support couldn't workout what was wrong.

I literally worked it out this morning, now seeing all these posts.

I'm pretty annoyed.
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It gets even more confusing because I was still told it wasn't a tattoo issue even though I took off the wrist detection on that arm and it still did that. I took off the password and have just left it alone. I am pissed I cn't use apple pay because that requires a password and it got old quick entering teh password every time I sat my arm down.

I did an informal test today I had someone very pale skinned white with no tattoos wear it with and with out the password and it worked perfectly. I had someone darker skinned than me wear it who has no tattoos wear it with and without password no issues. I'm medium skin brown and it works on the non tattoo arm like normal, but on the tattoo'd are no go.

On the bright side since I have spent now 4 days and 8 hours of my life dealing with this they did offer me a free sports band. I still don't want to have to wear it on the other hand becasue I actually wear the watch to hide that small tattoo!
 
From the apple website where they talk about the heart monitor limitations.

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.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666
 
mistersandman said:
From the apple website where they talk about the heart monitor limitations.

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.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666
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They updated to add that information. That paragraph wasn't previously there.
 
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