So It Seems The Apple Watch Hates Tattoos

The Apple Watch may have taken the world by storm following its official launch last week, but it seems to already be excluding certain customers.

One Reddit user has reported that the Apple Watch is refusing to work on those with tattooed forearms, as it seems unable to process through his ink design.

Instead, the device, which starts from £299 but can cost as much as £13,000, locks up repeatedly, refusing to allow users to operate it.

Locked up

The problem was highlighted by Reddit user guinne55fan, who shared his woes on the popular forum site.

“So I thought my shiny new 42mm SS watch had a bad wrist detector sensor,” he wrote. “The watch 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.”

He then “decided to try holding it against my hand 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.”

He reported that Apple support had since been in contact, and solved the issue, which was probably caused by the LED readers in the Watch. The pigments in guinne55fan’s tattoo are thought to have been preventing the Watch from being able to see inside his veins, meaning the device assumes it’s not being worn and therefore not issuing notifications.

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