Fitbit (or any fitness tracker) that can be worn elsewhere besides the wrist?

[dernu]

I have had a fitbit charge 6 for about a month now. I love the sleep tracking and heartrate monitoring. My problem is that I have a dark wrist tattoo on my non-dominant arm which messes with the readings, and am planning on getting on on my other arm as well. I also have tattoos covering most of my arms so a bicep-worn device may have difficulty. I have considering wearing my fitbit around my ankle but people seem to think the readings will be off because it's not supposed to be worn there. Are there any other options? I really don't need to see the screen.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @dernu you're not the only one with this issue if you search for it on the forums. Over the years, a few members have posted with this problem. What seemed to work for them was putting a white medical tape under the sensor and it was able to pick up the heart rate and activities. The darker the ink and the skin seemed to make it harder for the sensor to pick up the data. Try using a white tape under the sensor and see if it works for you. One member used nano tape and said it worked for them. Please let us know what results you have. It just might help the next person who has a tattoo.

[JohnnyRow]

Never tried it, so take accordingly, but my thoughts:

• Probably more accurate step count
• Easier to lose, make sure to wear underneath a sock
• Might not fit, might need a strap extender, available from Amazon, maybe elsewhere
• For heartrate monitoring, just try it out now and see.  In theory it can be worn anywhere there is sufficient blood flow. For instance, some say upper arm is even better than wrist but them can't see.  My own opinion is that it's not an issue of accuracy but of actually getting the steady readings.  And it might be more susceptible to slipping around without you noticing it, and being tougher to adjust.  Having written all that, made me think of upper arm or even upper forearm if you are not concerned with visibility.

[JandenH]

I was struggling for days to get my heartrate working with no results🫣 till I found out when I held the charge 6 between my fingers that it worked and also worked on parts with no tattoo. After that I discovered this forum🤣🤣🤣

I have 2 full sleeves including my hands with only a blank skin spot underneath my wrist. Wearing the Fitbit upside down seems to work for now but I’m gonna try the tape too. Can’t remember I had this issue with previous and older Fitbit devices.

[JandenH]

Based on several suggestions, I tested multiple medical tapes (my wife is a medic🙏🏻) but without any result. The green light is not suitable to detect bloodflow or pulse if you have a tattoo. Quite a shame. Curious if that problem occurs with an Apple Watch or Garmin watch

[Triletics]

@JandenH high chance it does occur. I know that Garmin tries to read HR from darker skin by increasing the brightness of sensor's LEDs (which increases power consumption - in other words, the darker skin, the battery lasts slightly shorter) and does the same when the tattoo is there. But whether it works or not depends on the tattoo. Perfect black tattoo most likely will absorb any light and won't reflect anything back to sensor 🤷

[JandenH]

I had a Fitbit flex with excellent sleeping pattern recording, with no leds at all🫣 worked fine…  not sure on what technology that was based.