Does Fitbit Work On Tattoos? Think Twice Before!

How Tattoo Can Affect Your Fitbit?

To those of who you who don’t know how tattooing works here is your ten second easy to grasp explanation: Tattoos are made by injecting ink into the dermis, which is the second layer of skin beneath the epidermis. The process involves the use of a tattoo machine, also known as a tattoo gun, and in most cases it is almost permanent.

Now you need to understand how Fitbit trackers or any trackers work to track different metrics from your body. While we’ve done in depth research on matter on how Fitbit calculate Heart Rate using Greenlight and the accuracy of the later. To sum it all up in a line here is what you need to know: Fitbit uses PPG technology (which is light based method) to shine greenlight on your veins and then work with reflected data to draw conclusions.

Given that we understand both sides of story now the questions remains does Fitbit work on Tattoos? Well, your answer is both Yes and No.

Fitbit & Tattoo? Does It Work Out?

As we mentioned above Fitbit uses a light based method which means that in order for the tracker to extract data it needs to have both contact with skin and no obstruction.

Unfortunately, if you would’ve tattooed skin then you are violating at least one of the laws of smartwatch tracking. Your tattoo will act as obstruction for tracker as well as light that your Fitbit trackers wants to shine on your veins. Which means that complications would arise when Fitbit will try to do what it does the best.

“But you said Yes too above?”

We did and there is a reason for it too, and it is that some trackers (not all of them) can work on tattoos and yes that does include Fitbit products too. Although what trend suggests is that newer models are more likely to fail, but if you have something like Inspire 2 you just might be able to get something out of it. By the way if you’re not sure which Fitbit do you have head here and check for yourself.

What To Do If Your Tattoo Is Stopping Fitbit?

There are two solutions that you can try and maybe they will work for you!

Using Epoxy Bottlecap Stickers to cover the senser area of your Fitbit tracker you can get your health tracker to work. They will cost you something like $10-15 which is not a lot.

However, since it is just a workaround and there are variations within each Fitbit model keep in mind that there is possibility your problem might still exists even after buying these.

Another possible solution which is both free and easy to implement is having your Fitbit tracker on non-tattooed part of your skin.

Now that could be upper arm, lower arm, or your ankle(we have talked about alternative ways to wear Fitbit tracker – if you are interested). Like it doesn’t matter as long as there is no tattoo there. Because it is the ink of tattoo that causes the problem and you just need a way to be away from it.

Other Ways To Fix Fitbit & Tattooed Skin Problem?

There are two alternatives that you can go for if you the solutions above doesn’t work for you.

The first is the simplest and it is to get chest strap that can be connected to your Fitbit tracker. Because then due to it you won’t have to worry about Fitbit extracting data from your body.

That part will be handled by strap, and since chest straps uses ECG technology to extrapolate you’re more likely to get accurate findings. They’re also easily connected to other Gym equipment like treadmill and sports bike through Bluetooth, so you won’t have to worry about unified data collection too.

Another alternative is to invest in Smart Rings like Oura Rings. Right now they are not super popular like smartwatches but they do hold immense potential. Not to mention they are much more discreet. So you can have one on your finger and then it doesn’t matter how much tattooed your wrist is the ring acts independently.