My Tattoo Sleeve vs Smartwatches: 1–0 (Guess Who’s Winning)

Hi everyone — quick rant and a genuine question for the smartwatch crowd.

I’ve got a full tattoo sleeve on my left arm, and it turns out that’s enough to completely confuse most smartwatches.

Heart rate, blood oxygen, stress, and even basic activity tracking either barely work or give totally random results.

Right now I’m using a Samsung Watch 7, but I’ve also tried Garmin, Pixel Watch, and Apple Watch.

Out of all of them, only the Apple Watch sometimes manages to read my data correctly — and even that feels more like luck than tech.

I actually prefer wearing my watch on my left hand, but because of the tattoos I don’t really have a choice.

Most of the time I’m forced to wear it on my right hand just to get basic sensor readings.

It’s kind of wild that in 2026 we have AI features, sleep coaching, and advanced health metrics, but tattoos still break the core sensors.

Feels like smartwatch makers never tested their devices on people with real ink.

Anyone else with tattoos dealing with this, or found a smartwatch that actually respects the tattooed lifestyle?