You wouldn’t know it to look at her piercings and aqua locks, coiffed by electric shock, but Draven didn’t see a mohawk until she was 15.

Growing up in wealthy, conservative North Delta, she was surrounded by normalcy. At school she killed time by doing her friends’ makeup in the cafeteria — her talent was plain. Soon enough, the not-for-profit Burlesque collective Screaming Chicken Theatrical Society discovered her makeup skills. But when they eventually put her on stage to dance solo, she didn’t fit in. She was too scary.

“I’ve been obsessed with horror movies and blood and intestines since I was a very small child,” says Draven, who remembers refusing to turn off the television when her mother caught her absorbed in a slasher flick. “Parents take note: I went to church and wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies as a child.”

Read the full interview with Betty Draven/Bloody Betty in Sad Mag #11: The Glamour Issue, launching November 17th at W2.

Photo by Shane Oosterhoff