any advice appreciated

last year i got a few finger tattoos- the tattooist that did them at first used a thicker needle and dug in so deep, my fingers were raw, bleeding, and it caused a combination of fallout/blowout.

i went to a different artist later on to have them touched up, and they decided to freehand and, while looking directly at the reference photo, messed up the design. it looks fine, but it's still not what i asked for.

i love drawing, i have always loved doodling and sketching, and i have a fairly steady hand

obviously, i'm not going to order a tattoo machine off of amazon and take it directly to my skin first thing, i'm not an idiot so please constructive advice in the comments only please-

i want to get a lot more tattoos and i'm wondering if it would be at all worth it to buy my own tattoo machine and practice on fake skin and see (with a lot of research beforehand) if i would be at all good at it- i would love to do small tattoos on myself

what machine should i start with? i have seen a lot of people recommend the dragonhawk fold 2- i want something that i could actually use on my skin later after lots of practice, not just something cheap for practice. is this a good tattoo machine? or are there better ones under $300 that you would recommend?

also looking for advice/stories about tattooing yourself as a beginner! i want to hear it all, successes and regrets