Joe Manganiello turned his health nightmare into fairytale body art.

As the Magic Mike star continues his comeback era following a seven-year battle with a mysterious autoimmune disease, he released up-close and personal snaps documenting the process of his first-ever tattoo. 

“The idea to cover my surgery scars with my first tattoo,” Manganiello captioned the NSFW slideshow on Instagram, showing off the sleeve stretching from his lower abdomen to his knee, “a three foot dragon down my right side, was my effort to take back what little agency I felt that I had.” 

According to Manganiello, the fierce green and orange monster is a metaphor for his body’s internal conflict which he noted is explained in his memoir Bloodlines, released Oct. 13. 

“In chapter four, I related my struggle with the illness to my body sending out knights to fight a (western) dragon that didn’t exist,” he added. “The soldiers would then punch holes throughout my body when they couldn’t find an enemy.” 

The 49-year-old also hoped the tattoo would act as a symbol to his body “to stop attacking the dragon”—in other words, himself.