What’s up Haji D’Natrix, glad to have ya’ at the forum. There are alot artist who know what their doing here, so hope you like it. As for equipment it depends largely on what kind of money your talking about. Their are alot of great machines out there, some good prices, and some are very expensive. The very first machine I bought was a Spaulding Rogers Reaper I believe, and to tell you the truth that machine was one of the most reliable machines I have ever had, it was around 160.00 usd. at the time. Now I’ve got a custom built machine from a guy in Texas, I paid 400.00 for it, and my primary shader is a brass machine built by a guy in Louisianna, I paid 350.00 for it. I’ve gotten used machines for 80.00 but they needed work so they cost me about 110.00 total for some frame, ya know what I mean…..

So it really does depend, these are just some of the machines, not including my power supplies, clip cord, foot pedals, tubes, needles, new ink, auto clave, lights, ect……on and on and on………..

Now you could buy a new kit and use what you have and rebuild with better material when needed, as long as a machine is kept up it will do you right. Some of the cheaper machines are hard to keep adjusted, but it’s like a car you’ve had for years you know what little tricks you can do to make it happy. Again, good to have ya brother!