Does NOT work well with Tattoos

[TatttooFaceMike]

I am not sure why there is such varying results with fitness trackers and tattoos. As soon as Apple Watch added the blood oxygen sensor, they stopped working with Tattoos. I have had a Whoop strap for a while and it seems to work fine overall but I was really wanting to track all of that info AND get step counts again so I went to the Charge 5. Worked decent the first day and night. Night was a bit weird, it only logged 4 hours of my sleeping. Next day, seemed fine. That night I took a shower with it on, which seemed to be the point in which it stopped generating HR data for me. Yesterday, it wouldn't even recognize it was on my wrist unless I held it in the exact location on my wrist that doesn't have tattoos. It is still monitoring step count fine. I charged it fully yesterday though, and it died overnight. Not sure the issue there. Perhaps I got a defective unit as far as battery is concerned, or maybe it is running the battery low because it is constantly trying to generate HR data? I will never understand how these companies don't compensate for tattooed users. 

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

Hello @TatttooFaceMike and welcome to the Help forum.  You diagnosed the issue when you said that you couldn't get a heart rate unless you placed it in a spot where you have no tattoos.  All devices that measure heart rate this way look for pulsations in tiny blood vessels just below the skin surface.  The light is reflected back to the sensors.  Tattoo ink either absorbs the light or blocks the way to the blood vessels.  Tattoos and optical heart rate sensors just don't work well together.

[TatttooFaceMike]

Yeah, the issue is, its not all HR sensors that have this problem. The Whoop Strap works fine with the tattoos, and the big reason the Whoop isnt optimal for me is becasue of the lack of step counting and I have always believed that FitBit is superior in the “community” side of things. I dont really care as much about the HR issue and ALL of the data that I will lose for it not recognizing my HR, but if its going to drain the battery in a day (when it should last for 5-7 days) because it is searching for my HR, that is an issue for me.

[LZeeW]

@TatttooFaceMike   There was a huge uproar over the Apple Watch/HR/Tattoo issue and it earned its own "#", as in #Tattoogate.  It all has to do with the number, arrangement of, and the specifics of the emitter(s) and the sensor(s).  The Charge 5 has one emitter and two sensors.  I looked a a Whoop animation.  I saw three emitters, but I can't tell how many sensors it has.  I remember some posts from Blaze users (two emitters and one sensor) who has success, but then bad results with a newer one emitter, two sensor model.  And, like I said, not all sensors are the same.

I hope this explanation doesn't require an advanced physics degree to understand.  I tried to keep it simple.

[FitnessPassion]

Hi @TatttooFaceMike 

Have you found any trackers that work over tattoos and track steps? Or is it just the Whoop Strap? I’m looking for a tracker that doesn’t need a monthly subscription, tracks my workouts effectively and tracks steps as well. At a push I can live without a step tracking. 

I currently have the Ionic and it’s so temperamental with tracking. I agree, in this day and age, it’s a shame that there isn’t a resolve for this.