Life & Work with Will Bledsoe of Spring Hill

Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Bledsoe.

will, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I got my start in tattooing in early 2002. I apprenticed under my mentor Kendall Mayberry in Murfreesboro for a year and a half. Once I knew that I’d secured an apprenticeship I was all in. I quickly lost interest in pretty much everything else. As a result, I lost my apartment and ended up living in the back of the tattoo shop. No heat, no AC, no shower, and hole in the roof big enough to crawl into. I had to keep a trash can under it because it would pour into my room whenever it rained. I worked as a bartender in a whisky bar right off campus at MTSU and as a barista at an incredible little coffee shop called the Red Rose to make some money while I worked off my apprenticeship at the tattoo shop. All told it was 80 hour weeks, and little sleep. Looking back, even with all that chaos going on it was one of the best times of my life.
I worked at that shop for about 5 years. The owner and I had a falling out and I moved to what was at that time the premier shop in Nashville. In those days there were less than ten shops in town, it was an incredibly small circle. Most of the tattooers were on good terms, lots of barbecues and nights at the bar.
Nashville began to grow in fits and starts, and then with what seemed like headlong speed. Late 2006 to mid 2009 were an amazing time to be a young tattooer. Riding motorcycles, digging deep into tattooing, and running around trying to have as much fun as possible were my main activities.
The industry was booming, and growth was explosive. I was lucky enough to have an established artist named Brandon Hanna take me under his wing and fill in the gaping holes in my tutelage. My old mentor was a stellar human being, but was not the best tattooer. I learned how to deal with people from Kendall, I learned how to tattoo from watching Brandon work, and getting tattooed by him.
On June 19th 2009 I stayed late at the shop to work on a half sleeve for a client of mine. Afterwards I decided to go for a ride on my motorcycle. I was on my way home when I was hit by a drunk driver. He hit me from behind, and I was flung from the bike. I found myself running down Franklin Road, and then as my feet tangled, I fell and bounced down the street, coming to a stop in heap. The guy that hit me tried to run, and my bike was trashed. The police showed up, and took him to jail. I spent the rest of the night in the emergency room, getting x rayed and trying to make sense of how I’d survived. I sustained injuries to my neck and spine that would turn out to be permanent.
I spent six weeks recovering at my mother’s house. Her health was beginning to deteriorate rapidly and I had made arrangements to move home to care for her later that summer. I moved to Franklin in June of 2009. I commuted to Nashville for six months or so, and was approached by my boss at the time with an opportunity to take over management of his Franklin location. We made an agreement that would lead to me taking over ownership of the shop. After two years of working in the worst part of town, we began to toss around the idea of moving and relocating the business. We formed an LLC, and went in as partners. We found a new place and I spent six months working eighteen hours a day tattooing and doing remodel work. My best friend at the time was a master millwright and trim carpenter. He worked on my shop for months til the small hours of the morning. After an exhaustive process we opened up in March of 2012. I had had my hands on every part of that building. From replacing a ruptured water main to hand installing custom made oak wainscoting, painting and repainting, staining, electrical, and cutting the foundation to install our wet wall, it was a true labor of love, and serious sweat equity was put in, not to mention spending a fortune. It was truly a special place, and I was immensely proud of it.
We were in business together for three years, before it became apparent that my former boss was not interested in actually working as a team. In his mind it was and always would be his business. Needless to say as things deteriorated and the situation became untenable. I tried to buy him out, but the effort was not successful. We spent over a year in an unbelievably stressful and expensive legal battle. We finally reached mediation and parted ways in the fall of 2015.
I named the shop Battleground Tattoo Parlour to honor the fight I’d just been through, and to give a nod to the history of the area. Several battles were fought locally during the Civil War, and as a history buff, I thought it would be appropriate. I continued to operate out of that location until December of 2024. At that time I sold the property and moved to Spring Hill.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been the smoothest road! Predatory business practices, dishonest partners, sick parents, and building a reputation for quality and integrity have all been an uphill climb. I was told by my grandfather as a young man to be aware of the company that you keep, because you will be judged by it. I have found that to be true. I am incredibly picky about who i surround myself with and who I bring into my business.
I was raised in an incredibly toxic environment, and I was unaware for a long time just how unprepared I was for the world at large. You don’t know what you don’t know. After my motorcycle accident there were tremendous physical limitations to my life. Chronic pain was not something that I had ever experienced before. Coupled with caring for a parent whose health was declining, the amount of stress I was experiencing was through the roof.
As the child of an alcohol and drug addicted father and a mother who enjoyed being an adulterer, I had no idea what emotional intelligence was, much less emotional regulation. I was raised in a violent and chaotic household. You never knew what was going to happen in our house. I watched my mother try to kill my father with a butcher knife as a boy. I frequently witnessed my father beating my mother. Domestic violence was present in our home for my entire childhood. My parents divorced when I was eight. We moved to Nashville in 1987. My mother’s parents helped raised my brother and I. My brother was extremely problematic for our family. His outbursts and behavior led him to be put on medication that essentially turned him into a zombie for three years. My sister had a child in high school that she gave up for adoption. We were very much statistics in the 1980s and 1990’s. I was the archetypal invisible middle child, there just wasn’t a lot of bandwidth left over for me. I found that I could do pretty much whatever I wanted as long as I avoided repeating the antics of my siblings. Mental health at that time wasn’t even a concept for me. Survival was. My mother remarried after several years of being a home wrecker and having relationships with married men. The man she chose as her new husband was a sexual predator who made advances to my brother and I and our friends. This went on for years. All of this combined to create a psychological nightmare that I wasn’t prepared for or equipped to bear. And the worst part is that I thought that this was all normal. If you grow up with an elephant in the living room, you aren’t aware that it’s not supposed to be there, it’s just part of the furniture.

My father took his own life in 2013 as a result of health problems that arose from his drug addiction and alcoholism. Losing a parent to suicide is something that never goes away.

The toll of all this culminated in 2021 led me to the dissolution of my marriage. Lockdown and COVID made life incredibly difficult for a great many people. Many marriages didn’t make it through it. Mine didn’t. My inability to deal with the grief and pain that I’d been carrying throughout my life added to the stress of Lockdown turned me into a bitter and angry man with no outlet. I’d had little success in the past with the mental health professionals that I’d been to. With no guidance, and unable to navigate the situation alone, I ended up losing my family. I went through separation and divorce and found myself in the deepest darkest place in my life. I have spent the subsequent four years breaking generational curses, and facing my own struggles head on. With the help of an amazing grief and trauma counselor, and with a great deal of work and perseverance, as well as the support of amazing friends, I’ve been able to turn the page on my own struggles, and I’m now thriving in a way that I could never have imagined possible ten years ago.

I am now equipped to own the responsibility for my own actions and to face the challenges that come my way. I work daily to better understand the nature of who I am, and why I am who I am. After years of work I have made it a personal mission to help others to understand themselves, their feelings, and to help them to be able to make better choices. By sharing healthy experiences and coping mechanisms, my goal is to offer support to men who are struggling. By sharing my own story, I stand as an example of how men can face adversity and put in the work to effect great change in their lives. I have written a men’s mental health journal that serves as a template for men to take a honest look at themselves, take personal responsibility for themselves and to take disciplined, intentional action on their lives in the pursuit of living a more full and healthy life.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a tattooer. I’ve been in the business for 23 years. I own and operate Battleground Tattoo Parlour. We are an upscale shop focused on making incredible tattoos and providing a stellar customer service experience. We offer a clean, safe, fun and professional environment. I work mostly in Traditional American, Traditional Japanese, illustrative, Neo Traditional, and geometric work. I am a digital designer, I make digital assets for tattooers and designers. My products have sold all over the world.
I am a knife maker, my business partner and mentor Ray Casias, who is the head Combatives Instructor for the 5th SFG at Ft. Campbell own a company called American Tool and Knife. We are preparing for our first production run of low visibility combatives knives very shortly. I am an author. I have written a men’s mental health journal called Seeking Light in Dark Places and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training journal called the Essential Jiu Jitsu Journal. Both are available on Amazon.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My daughter is the guiding principle in my life. Everything that I do is in service to being the best person and father that I can be. She’s the best part of my life, and I strive every single day to be worthy of her. Living a life that she can be proud of and leaving her a legacy that will allow her to live the life that she wants are my goals that I work towards every day.

Mental health and self care are essential. As a result of how I was raised, I didn’t know how important it is to maintain one’s own health both mentally, physically and spiritually. You cannot fill a cup from an empty pitcher. As husbands and fathers, it is imperative to maintain your own health and wellbeing so that you can be the foundation for your family.

Honesty and integrity. You’ll never make everyone happy, but doing your best to make a positive impact on others is essential.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.battlegroundtattoo.com
• Instagram: battle_ground_tattoo_parlour
• Facebook: HTTPS://m.facebook.com/Battlegroundtattooparlour/