Joe Manganiello shows off a huge dragon tattoo inked over his surgery scars

Joe Manganiello has some new body art and it is impossible to miss.

The actor revealed a giant dragon tattoo that winds from his knee up to his belly button. He says it covers the scars left behind by the mysterious illness he fought for years.

A dragon with a meaning

Manganiello showed off the ink on Instagram on Monday as he promoted his memoir, "Bloodlines."

He explained that in the fourth chapter he compared his sickness to his body sending out knights to battle a western-style dragon that was never really there. When those soldiers could not find an enemy, he wrote, they "punch holes throughout my body."

The roughly three-foot tattoo over his surgery scars was his way of reclaiming the small amount of control he felt he had. He said it was meant to tell his body to stop fighting the dragon, because the eastern-style dragon was actually him.

Life after the illness

Manganiello has posted raw photos of his scars before. One showed the open wound in his belly once surgeons took out his ostomy bag and joined his intestines back together.

The "Magic Mike" star says he is now free of symptoms and off his medication after seven years of dealing with the illness.

He did not say how many hours he spent in the tattoo chair.