This is a suggestion I got from someone on the outside, looking in...

  "You could also score a channel in the platen deep enough and wide
   enough to pass the tab.  However, you'd have less remaining platen
   to provide friction to advance the paper..."

Mark Van Essen¶
East Grand Forks, Minnesota, and¶
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND¶
(Winter Storm Warning today: wind chill 70 degrees BELOW zero!)