To provide an ink ribbon printer which turns personal information or the like reverse printed to a used (after printing/after photoprinting) ink ribbon into an unreadable state quickly (almost simultaneously) after used, without a speed of the ink ribbon printer and the original printing performance for the printing quality being damaged, without using consumables such as chemicals and transfer rollers, without consuming an excessive energy for a heating process or the like, without fabrication costs being increased, and without making an incineration treatment as a waste treatment difficult.

In the ink ribbon printer, after the ink ribbon is let out of an ink ribbon roll, is transferred synchronously with a printing paper and is printed with a printing image by a printing head, the used ink ribbon is transferred to a collecting part by a nip roller with a cutting blade set at a downstream region of the printing head. At the same time, the used ink ribbon is cut to be unreadable.