The highest my BF ever got was about 15% a year ago. Now, I'm clean bulking at 10%, and with much more muscle mass from last summer.
You can eat a shit load of calories and maintain a decent Bf as long as you're in control of your macros. If you just eat what's in sight and don't know what you're taking in that's when bulks tend to get out of hand. If you monitor your intake and train hard then calories are no problem. If you play your cards right with training and recovery your body will use those excess calories to rebuild. On training days I eat 500-700 calories over maintenance on training days (depends on how much cardio I do after my workout) and about 400 over maintenance on non-workout but cardio training days and about 100-200 over maintenance on rest days and I'm not gaining any fat, I' making literally 1-3 PRs each session (4x a week), and I've gained a noticeable amount of muscle in one month of my current program.
I'd like to say my body is responding well to my volume program, but really the reason is I've devoted the last 6 or so months to researching diet over everything else. It was my biggest weakness in BB'ing. Now, I have my diet down perfectly, and I've really learned to listen to my body and understand what nutrients it needs at what times and in what quantities. Also, I eat clean, whole foods. I supplement with only 1 scoop whey isolate (25g protein) a day, and everything else is real, non-processed food. It's fucking expensive and time-consuming, but it's damn worth it.
So, I say don't worry about a bulk. If you're willing to put the effort in to calculate your macros it's really no big deal. With some time and attention you'll gain very little fat, and with the muscle gains the fat you do have will be distorted -- creating a visual illusion that you're actually leaner. Besides, the only noticeable fat usually is in the torso, anyway. I have a bit of blab in the abs, yet I can see some striations in my quads and calves. Even in my torso I can see a definite outline of abs, and my torso is still more or less concave. I don't have a protruding belly; it's rock hard in there.
Bulking is 1 step back for 5 steps forward.