Joe Manganiello has unveiled a huge dragon tattoo covering his leg and abdomen, saying it was designed to conceal scars left by surgery during his years-long battle with a mysterious illness.
The actor shared images of the three-foot tattoo on Instagram while promoting his memoir, Bloodlines. The design stretches from his knee to his belly button.
In the book, Manganiello compares his illness to his body sending knights to fight “a (western) dragon that didn’t exist”.
He said the soldiers in the metaphor would “punch holes throughout my body” when they “couldn’t find an enemy”, describing the nearly fatal condition he had battled for seven years.
Manganiello said the tattoo was “my effort to take back what little agency I felt that I had, and to signal to my body to stop attacking the dragon… because the (eastern) dragon was me…”
The Magic Mike star had previously shared photographs of the scars from his operations, including a hole in his stomach after doctors removed his ostomy bag and reconnected his digestive tract.
Manganiello has said he is now symptom-free and no longer taking medication. It is not known how long he spent having the dragon tattoo completed.
