Michael Phelps is getting a well-deserved tattoo of a shark following his heroic (and entertaining) race with a shark, which airs July 23 at 8 p.m. on Discovery channel.

“I don’t know if it’s a hammer head, or a great white, but something’s going on the body,” Michael said to People magazine. He and his wife went to the Bahamas where he got super close to a 13-foot Hammerhead. “At one point she was just 12 inches from my face. It was amazing!”

Then he went to Cape Town, South Africa to play with great whites and test his speed.

“The two tattoos that I already have are very special,” he explained. “The Olympic rings, obviously very meaningful, and Michigan for me was the school I always wanted to go to. It was also my first time away from home, kind of experiencing life on my own. Diving with sharks was something, it’s been on my bucket list for years and years and years. And being able to check it off, I think, now I’m ready to get a tattoo.”

H/T: People