Decent chinese machines.

I wont knock what you bought…to each his own, but I would recommend spending as much as you can on a quality machine and not that junk….For the $30 you spent on that Chinese machine you could have bought a Hitman rotary or added a few buck and got either Rotary or Coil machines from Hildebrandt and been in alot better shape. I would find it hard to believe that Luo machines are truly handmade, but hey, if it works and your happy rock on!

Hi please go to Ebay and type in Kylin Tattoo I have four of their machines and they truly equal to the micky sharpz machine I own at a fraction of the price I have also put some tattooist friends of mine on to them (my apprentice friend and also the two shop owners) these machines are great
Symon

Excellent, Ive heard they are really nice machines for the money….do you have any pics of the machines or work youve done with them? I have thought about picking a couple up, for the price you couldnt beat it.

These are the machines I have They are taken from the kylin tattoo website as for work I have, that consists of some pretty average practice skins at this stage so no work from me but i will organize some photos of the tattoo my apprentice friend has started on my own leg
Symon
http://www.kylintattoo.com/uppics/2011837252591240.jpg
http://www.kylintattoo.com/uppics/20116144575830682.jpg
http://www.kylintattoo.com/uppics/201152421131559755.jpg
http://www.kylintattoo.com/uppics/201152421104741719.jpg

i have been looking at some of the chinese kits as they seem like the cheapest way to get started and i have heard some are decent.

this one looks like it has enough stuff at a decent price, is it too good to be true, or does anyone know anything about this brand? what about other decent cheap kits?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Tattoo-kit-2-machine-Needles-40-ink-D102-1-/120733090545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1c40c2f1#ht_7609wt_1074

what is the real danger getting something like this… just that it breaks soon? or what? i am just getting it to clean up some of my old handmade tattoos and eventually learn to do decent looking, sorta simple colored/shaded pieces… any info would help, thanks.

@plagueship wrote:

i have been looking at some of the chinese kits as they seem like the cheapest way to get started and i have heard some are decent.

this one looks like it has enough stuff at a decent price, is it too good to be true, or does anyone know anything about this brand? what about other decent cheap kits?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-Tattoo-kit-2-machine-Needles-40-ink-D102-1-/120733090545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1c40c2f1#ht_7609wt_1074

what is the real danger getting something like this… just that it breaks soon? or what? i am just getting it to clean up some of my old handmade tattoos and eventually learn to do decent looking, sorta simple colored/shaded pieces… any info would help, thanks.

Up to you on whether or not you purchase it or not. Personally I would not. Heres the reason: those machines are gonna give you nothing but headaches, sure they look pretty and all, but a cheap machine is hard to tune and KEEP TUNED, not to mention made with inferior parts and coils. That power supply is junk, no read out on it that i could see, it would work but I like to see what Im doing volt wise, I guess you can just go by sound, which is perfectly acceptable. The inks would be OK for practice but not on skin, throw out the tips as you wont be able to use them on skin either unless you want to get an Autoclave ( $800-$1000)….
all in all, get yourself a better kit, spend a few extra bucks and get something decent, I always recommend the Hildebrant products to everyone as I believe the machines are excellent choices for beginners or professionals, they will hold up over the long term and stay tuned rather well, if you like get a Rotary, then you dont have to tune it at all, just plug it in and your off and running.

@Viper65 wrote:

I wont knock what you bought…to each his own, but I would recommend spending as much as you can on a quality machine and not that junk….For the $30 you spent on that Chinese machine you could have bought a Hitman rotary or added a few buck and got either Rotary or Coil machines from Hildebrandt and been in alot better shape. I would find it hard to believe that Luo machines are truly handmade, but hey, if it works and your happy rock on!

I think that mass produced machines – fair price to pay for quality is $150-$250
Hand carved machines and custom builds $250 – $500

But you can get cheap china machines, and rebuild them for about the price of a mass produced (workhorse or one of those other kingpin / pulse/ eikon machines)

Well when I got started I bought one of does eBay kits..and let me tell you there No Good…power supply died real quick machines umm suck..the only thing I have left from the kit is the case..lol.

@symon wrote:

Hi please go to Ebay and type in Kylin Tattoo I have four of their machines and they truly equal to the micky sharpz machine I own at a fraction of the price I have also put some tattooist friends of mine on to them (my apprentice friend and also the two shop owners) these machines are great
Symon

i agree, i have two Kylin machines and i like them very much. solid built machine, but most of all my lining became much smoother just by switiching to this machine. they come tuned pretty well right out of the box. i will be buying more.

Hey just my two cents… I don’t personally just label everything chinese as shitty. It just so happens that everything they make is in fact shitty. If your trying to go big on a little budget, unimax, national, and tts make some nice machines for a fair price. And national gives you the option to choose different component and tuning options.

There is no such thing as good or decent chinese…anything. Pretty much everything made in china has lead contents that would not be allowed for production in the U.S. Its all about quality guys. The quality of the machines you use reflects on your work. Im not saying that if you buy a Ferrari that you will instantly be a pro racer, but would you drive the same in a kia? Tattooing is an art, not how and where to buy the cheapest stuff, and expecting quality results from that cheap stuff. Trust me it shows in your work.. Best of luck

I have a kit that i got off ebay and i looked at ALOT of them before going with these.. ultimately the power supply is awesome and all the cords and footswitch works great.. the ink sucks but it does come with some useful stuff.. like disposable tips and 50 assorred needles a decent case and some steel tips n practice skin.. things ive had to buy separate are better ink, gloves green soap disposable tube grip combos sharps containers and all my sterilization stuff. But tge machines are really good, ready to tune and go riggt out of the box. They run good and stable and dont heat up after hours of work.. so check it out heres the link.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=230768962256&index=1&nav=SEARCH&nid=31175404438

my boyfriend recently purchased a luo machine for me i have had a couple of cheap crap machines from china and they really were rubbish , but my luo machine is a reverse hitter liner (colock design) and i love it its fab i put some eikon springs on it and it is a really good liner

Chinese machines are complete waste of time. Go for only quality tattoo machines.

If you know how to tune and tweak a machine you can take a $12.00 machine and make it work as well as a $500 machine. But if you are new and don’t know my advise is to buy a Hildebrand liner and shadder . I personally use a tweaked up .44 magnum fand an old bulldog from Superior tattoo supply for most of my lining. They work great, i just changed the coils and springs out..

I think the comments bashing Chinese kits are nothing more than elitist snobbery… Comparing a Chinese kit to branded equipment is a totally false and invalid comparison. You can’t spend low, and expect to get Big $$ performance. However, what you will get, from a Chinese Starter Kit, is reasonable performance at a reasonable price. It will let you try your hand at tattooing and see if it’s for you or not. I bought a Chinese kit a couple of years ago, and it was fine. I had to replace the foot pedal quite quickly, and after two years, the coil machines have started to get a bit shaky and the clip cord eventually died, but it got me two years of experience which I certainly can’t grumble about, as the power pack is still running solidly. Were the inks in the kit the best? No, but equally, they don’t look bad, and haven’t faded into invisibility. A lot of this ‘Chinese is crap’ mentality I’m seeing, is exactly like the douchebag who eventually manages to scrape together the money to buy himself a Rolex, and then immediately starts slagging off anything that isn’t a Rolex as ‘cheap crap’. Guess what… The cheapest quartz digital watch will keep more accurate time than a Rolex, and compared to Patek Phillipe, Rolex is cheap crap :lol: Just using watches as an analogy, but I’m sure y’all will see the point I’m trying to illustrate about the mindset 8-)

I built a tattoo machine using a Chinese machine (it was a rebuild) for a popular artist friend of mine. he took his machines to convention, and all top guys love it. Nikko Mike Devries, Nick Baxter, etc. Chinese machines are not horrible. If you are a good artist / machine builder you can tweak anything.

Learn what styles of frames make the most dependable and tunable tattoo machine. Then you can go to some of the machine builders websites as well as the tattoo suppliers and find quality springs, coils, etc., and be able to rebuild a machine for really not that much money at all and then you’ll have a decent to great machine to work with. The biggest thing is that you need to understand the fundamentals and mechanics of what a good tattoo machine is and also how to effectively tune it once you’ve got it all put together.

Damn some of you guys sound like your gonna cry while you defend your chinese junkers. Seriously buying cheaper stuff from american companies, is ok, but if your not willing to commit to your art work and buy real hand made machines, and learn to build and tune, youre no better than any other tweeker or jailhouse tattooer.

please be reasonable，i think some of the tattoo supplies from china have lower price and quite good quality.such as Tmart.but i do not mean every thing is good.just judge it by yourself and chose what you want