Full-Throttle Healing

FOR MOST KIDS, a CT scan can feel intimidating. At Phoenix Children’s Hospital, it now feels like blasting through a galaxy, diving underwater or trekking through the jungle.

When the hospital sought a way to make its large CT scanners less frightening, it partnered with Wrapsesh, Gilbert, AZ, also known as Vinyl Vixen Wraps. Co-owned by Slim Sheddy (real name: Mike Shedd) and Vinyl Vixen, the company was tasked with designing, printing and installing full graphic wraps — not just on the front face, but around every exterior surface and deep inside the scanner tube itself. Three machines across multiple facilities were transformed with galaxy, jungle and underwater themes. Assisting with the design were Wrapstyle and Vojtech Graphics.

“We’re a small mom-and-pop luxury vehicle wrap shop, and we have cultivated our own lane,” says Vinyl Vixen. “We specialize in the overwrapping — the stuff that goes above and beyond that other shops don’t want to do. This was the first time someone asked us to do every surface and inside the tube. We really liked pushing the limits.”

Using a Mutoh 1682SR eco-solvent printer, the team produced panels on Avery Dennison MPI 1105 Easy Apply RS Supercast wrapping film, protected with DOL 1360Z gloss overlaminate. The film choice was deliberate. Vinyl Vixen consulted with her Avery representative to confirm that the material could withstand hospital-grade disinfecting and heat installation without affecting the multimillion-dollar equipment’s performance.

Installation took place overnight while facilities were closed. The gently sloping curves and tight interior tube required what Vinyl Vixen describes as an “upside-down, knees-on-the-floor, crunched-up” effort. Strategic design planning helped ease alignment: galaxy graphics fade to a black hole and ocean scenes to a whirlpool that minimized critical seams in the most challenging areas.

“Each of the three was done in under seven hours,” Vinyl Vixen says. “It’s not a crazy amount of film, but it’s intricate work.”

The result is more than decoration. It’s an immersive distraction that reframes a clinical procedure as an adventure — a creative, boundary-pushing application of wide-format film that proves even the most technical environments can benefit from bold, visual storytelling.

PHOTO GALLERY (3 IMAGES)