Meet Bradley Delay

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bradley Delay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bradley , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I come from a family of farmers and loggers, so there is always an endless amount of work to be done on our farm. I was raised by some very hard working people, and on top of that I was put to work at a very young age. Most the time, one’s hobby is just more work of a different sort. That way of life is about staying busy, and you really have no choice. The cows don’t know it’s Christmas.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My day job is making tattoos, a little art, and illustration on the side. For me, tattooing is this extraordinary craft that put me square right up and personal with the people I’m working with. I get to explore tattooing’s rich history and traditions and add my two cents. Being able to make a living drawing skulls was the dream of little heavy metal Brad, so this is truly my dream job.
I also have this night time gig of playing country vinyl with this outfit called The Country Co-Op which I created with a pal around six years ago. I sure do enjoy it; there have been weeks I’m out five of the seven nights. I’ve played music festivals and even overseas. Getting the crowd into it and even convincing folks country music ain’t all bad; that is the best reward.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

First quality that springs to mind is a sort of innocent ignorance combined with a blind love for what I was doing. If I would have ever stopped to do an analysis of time/material to revenue I would have never tried, because at first the numbers wouldn’t have added up. It’s also intimidating and staggering to consider the competition at hand… I’m glad I just stumbled forward regardless. Secondly I’m glad that I nurtured my natural drawing skills. In school I was the kid you wanted in your group to do the art part of the project. I kept at it all the way through college and kept going after that, because art for me was a way of life. Lastly, all the punk shows, comic books, heavy metal albums, and skating put me in a position to understand tattooing, its world, and its culture. In art, it’s best to get used to sucking, as one’s brain will always see flaws and ways it could be better. Your old work is going to look clumsy and your current work will usually look like it’s falling short of some imaginary potential. Get used to playing games with your ego because you have to put yourself out there and be judged by the public, and the rollercoaster of their admiration or disinterest can be hell on the psyche.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

My colleagues -past and present- at Historic Tattoo in Portland Oregon have helped me immensely in all manners of tattooing. It really is something else to be there; folks dedicated to tattooing, the art, and the business. Imagine tattooing all day, and then going out to the bar and we are still talking about what’s the best red, the best way to answer an email, etc. It was a wonderfully collaborative place too: if a design was giving trouble anyone of them would jump to help. If you needed a good eagle reference, they’d all jump to your aid. Yeah, over a one hundred years of combined experience is no joke and I learned so much from them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bdelay

Image Credits

Photo of me in green shirt by Madeline Knowles