Jeffrey Dean Morgan Reveals He Got 'Lucille' Tattoo in Honor of Walking Dead Baseball Bat: 'I Adore Her'

"I never had a prop in my life as an actor that felt so innately mine," the 'The Walking Dead: Dead City' star said in a behind-the-scenes clip

Jeffrey Dean Morgan says the barbed-wire-covered baseball bat he wields in The Walking Dead feels like an "extension" of his character — so now he's forever made it an extension of himself.

In a behind-the-scenes look at season 2 of The Walking Dead: Dead City, the 58-year-old actor lifted up his sleeve to show off a tattoo he says was dedicated to his character, Negan Smith, and his weapon of choice.

"I got a tattoo this year, it says, 'Lucille,'" Morgan said while showing off the new ink. "My wife played Lucille, but really it's the bat."

Of course, Negan is known to carry around the barbed wire bat — named Lucille after the character's late wife, who died of cancer at the cusp of the zombie apocalypse. And while Morgan's real-life wife, Hilarie Burton, played Lucille in the series, the actor revealed in the new clip that the tattoo is really just a dedication to the bat itself.

"I never had a prop in my life as an actor that felt so innately mine and feels like an extension of the character," he said. "And me personally, I adore her."

"To have Lucille back, that's when Negan is at his most Negan," Morgan added.

The Walking Dead viewers first saw the couple on screen together in 2020, during the series' 10th season finale when Negan was joined by his wife in a series of flashbacks. As for the baseball bat that shares Lucille's name, it made its first appearance on the AMC series' sixth season.

"That was a joy," Morgan said of working alongside Burton, 42. "I couldn't have asked for a cooler deal of working with Hilarie. I'm not going to lie, I was nervous as hell going in. I didn't know how she would be."

"I don't f--- around. I go to work," he added. "We better f------ bring it. And it was great. That first day with her, I went home just like, 'Thank God!'"

Walking Dead fans will once again be reacquainted with both Negan and his trusty baseball bat in Walking Dead: Dead City, which premieres on AMC and AMC+ on May 4.

Both Morgan and Burton previously caught up with PEOPLE in December, when they detailed what it was like to work together behind the scenes as producers on movie Bloody Axe Wound. As Burton explained, working on the campy horror film together felt "almost like a date."

"We're good at it," Morgan said at the time. "We don't actually want to kill each other or anything."

"His strengths are my weaknesses, and vice versa," she added.