The Thermofax Problem

Written By Jordan Brill

Why I Haven’t Used One in Five Years- And Probably Never Will Again…

There’s a strange thing that happens in tattooing where whatever technology existed during your apprenticeship mentally becomes “the correct way” to tattoo forever.

For some people, that’s coil machines vs. rotaries.
For some people, it’s predispersed ink instead of powder pigments.
For some people, it’s drawing on paper vs. and iPad.


And once something becomes normalized, people pretty much become blind to it and other possibilities that may arise.

I think that Thermofax paper falls squarely into that category.

For the last five years, I haven’t used traditional thermal transfer paper in my shop. Not because I think the stencils are objectively better- they’re absolutely not, but because I became increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of disposable plastic involved in the process.

Traditional thermal transfer paper (3M etc.) contains a polyester sheet layer. Every single polyester stencil in the garbage leeches microplastics in the environment which is now unfortunately found up in nearly all human beings’ tissues on the planet. In the grand scheme of plastic waste buildup, maybe that seems insignificant. I mean, we’re only ONE tattoo shop in ONE country. Like what about all of the disposable food containers in the trash, isn’t that way worse? Yes and yes.


But tattooing is already a business full of unavoidable waste. Our needles in the sharps containers, nitrile gloves (if you use them),  non-compostable barriers, cartridges- the list goes on forever.

So when I realized there was a way to eliminate one more disposable plastic product from my workflow, I became obsessed with figuring it out. Plus I’m a very health-conscious guy so there you go.

And honestly? I don’t miss Thermofax paper at all. Well, maybe that’s a stretch. What is true is that I don’t miss Thermofax paper enough to go back.


My Setup

I currently use an Epson EcoTank 2850 printer.

The stencil paper I use appears to be essentially repackaged Pacon tracing paper marketed for EcoTank stencil printing- but whatever. It’s economical and available even on Amazon.

For stencil ink, I originally used the expensive branded tattoo stencil inks sold specifically for EcoTank printers. These worked fine, but eventually I switched to a dramatically cheaper eBay alternative that honestly seems to work just as well. (Just shoot me a message on IG if you want the link) At the time of writing this it’s $54 for a 120mL bottle.

That alone drastically reduced the operating cost.

At this point, I’ve probably made somewhere around 4,000 stencils this way over the last five years.

To clarify: This is no longer an experiment for me- it’s just how I tattoo.


Is It Better Than a Thermofax?

No.

At least not in every way.

And I think pretending otherwise is where a lot of these conversations become dishonest.

Traditional thermal stencils are:

  • darker

  • more flexible

  • more forgiving

  • more durable

  • easier to apply

  • easier on difficult body parts

That’s all true.

But I also think modern tattooers have become incredibly dependent on perfect stencils in a way that’s historically very strange.

The tattooers people worship most - Sailor Jerry, Cap Coleman, Bert Grimm, Owen Jensen- many of them never even had access to a Thermofax. They couldn’t just call or email someone and get thermal transfer paper sent to their house in 3 business days.

Compared to acetate stencils or drawing directly onto the skin with a pen, EcoTank stencil printing feels borderline miraculous.

The lines are crisp.
The sizing is perfect.
Getting your drawing onto skin is super fast.
The consistency is excellent.

Did you mess-up your stencil? No worries. Print off another one for pennies and try it again. You know what? Print off 10 more! What’s it going to hurt?

Would Sailor Jerry would have preferred a modern thermal stencil over an EcoTank print? Probably.

Would he have immediately switched from acetate stencils to an EcoTank printer if it existed in the 1960s? Absolutely. No question in my mind.

And I think that perspective matters.

Because sometimes modern tattooing gets trapped in this weird mentality where: “The technology I learned with is the sacred correct version. If I have to work with any technology that existed before or after it, I can’t make a tattoo.”

But tattooing has always evolved through improvisation and experimentation.

The Biggest Complaint: Jamming

This is where most people give up. It’s annoying- straight up.

The tracing paper used in EcoTank printers is incredibly temperamental. It’s barely substantial enough to feed consistently through the printer. If the paper starts curling, warping, or folding over slightly, jams become constant and you’ll hear this crunching sound as the printer attempts to print on a piece of origami inside the printer. That sounds haunts my dreams.

I actually had to revive two printers before I finally understood what was happening by flushing the print heads and repeatedly printing entire sheets of big black rectangles to get everything flowing again.

Now I do a print head cleaning once a week religiously. Not when it seems clogged or when something looks faint. I also top off the ink a lot in all of the tanks, not just the black ink tank.

I do this every single week.

Since starting that habit, I’ve zero issues with it printing light or faint. The “Clean Print Head” function is there for a reason.

The other thing that matters is how you load the paper.

A few things that help tremendously:

  • Load around 20–30 sheets vertically

  • Extend the paper support fully

  • Let the top of the paper stack rest gently against the wall behind the printer

  • Keep the paper from curling or folding over time. You can also flip it every couple of days

  • Store extra paper on it’s back- not on its spine

This alone reduced my jamming problems by probably 90%.

Most people treat the setup casually, then they blame the printer when it struggles- but the system tends to reward intentionality.

Printing Tricks That Help Tremendously

Over time, we figured out a handful of tricks that dramatically improved stencil quality.

The biggest one:

If you’re printing from Procreate on an iPad, export the design as a JPEG and switch the AirPrint setting from “Normal” quality to “High.”

That alone creates noticeably darker stencils.

Certain stencil solutions also work much better than others.

We’ve had particularly good luck with:

  • Proton Stencil Gel

  • Forever Stencil

  • The Good Stencil Solution from Lucky Supply

Traditional Stencil Stuff works fine too, but the first three seem to bond especially well with these tracing paper-style transfers.

Another trick:

Once the stencil is applied, we lightly hit the back of the paper (the dry side facing outward) with a paper towel dampened with our watered-down green soap.

This seems to help pull more methyl violet through the paper and into the skin, resulting in a noticeably darker transfer.

It is a tiny adjustment, but it helps a lot. You can also help lock it-down with Spray Stuff (Stencil Stuff brand).

The Truth About the Downsides

The paper is thicker and less flexible than thermal paper- it matters and there’s no getting around that.

Elbows, knees, shoulder caps, ribs, the dip in the lower back- difficult body parts require more planning and more intention.

You can:

  • crumple the stencil slightly (to create lots of relief spots in the stencil)

  • strategically cut slits into any “corners” your design might have

  • poke relief holes

  • think ahead

Again: this is where people tend to get frustrated: MYSELF INCLUDED.

But honestly, I sometimes wonder if part of the frustration comes from the expectation that modern tattooing should feel frictionless all the time.

Tattooing has never really been frictionless.

And if a stencil being slightly lighter or requiring slightly more care completely destabilizes the tattoo process for someone, I don’t necessarily think the stencil is always the problem.

I think there’s value in learning to tattoo carefully. Not recklessly or lazily or entirely dependent on an ultra-dark perfect stencil surviving endless careless wiping with no strategy. I’ve tattooed so many elbow, knees, stomachs, chests, and full backs using these stencils- it is certainly not impossible.

Ironically, the slightly lighter stencil has actually become something I prefer.

Traditional, nearly black thermal stencils were historically so dark that I’d end up wiping them half-off before starting anyway.


Cost

The setup is dramatically cheaper over time than modern thermal systems. The printer itself costs a fraction of many dedicated thermal stencil printers.

And while stencil ink initially appears expensive, the actual operating cost per stencil becomes incredibly low.

After doing the math myself, I estimate that a clean, crisp stencil costs me somewhere around two cents to produce- pretty good! Again, it wasn’t my main goal but it certainly helps rationalize the added friction!


So Why Do I Still Use It?

Because for me, the downsides are worth the upsides.

I’m not trying to convince every tattooer on earth to abandon thermal paper tomorrow.

I’m also not pretending this system is objectively superior in every possible way.

But I am saying that tattooing has a long history of adaptation, problem solving, and working carefully with imperfect tools. In fact, look at Tom Spaulding in “The Art of Tattooing” (on Youtube) He still used Acetates for coverups after the advent of the Thermofax so that he could line it-up just right.

And compared to where tattooing came from, this setup already feels incredibly advanced.

Most importantly:
when I throw one of these used stencils away, I know it’s fundamentally just paper.

No polyester layer or additional microplastic waste entering the world unnecessarily.

In a business already drowning in disposable, single-use plastics- that matters to me.

Enough that I probably won’t ever go back.

Jordan Brill