Ben Affleck has finally addressed his very real eyesore of a tattoo.
The “Justice League” actor, who typically stays away from social media, broke his silence on the pressing national conversation about his body ink, which he previously claimed was “fake for a movie.”
The giant tattoo of a rising phoenix spanning from shoulder to shoulder and presumably all the way down his backside first caught our eye in 2015, amid Affleck’s divorce from actress Jennifer Garner.
A New Yorker piece published this week, titled “The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck,” renewed interest in the tattoo, and addressed the rising tide of Sad Affleck memes that have ricocheted around the internet since the actor was caught looking particularly despondent during a “Batman v Superman” interview.
”@NewYorker I’m doing just fine,” Affleck wrote on Twitter Thursday. “Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.”
Thick skin certainly couldn’t hurt after Affleck’s exes weighed in on his new look with less than stellar reviews.
In a particularly candid Vanity Fair profile, Garner, who shares three children with the star, was one of the first to comment on her ex’s ink.
“You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart,’” Garner said, adding, “Am I the ashes in this scenario? . . . I refuse to be the ashes.”
Affleck’s ex-fiancée Jennifer Lopez also didn’t hold back, declaring that his tattoos have always been “awful.”
“I would tell him, ’What are you doing?” Lopez said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” back in 2016. “It has too many colors. His tattoos always had too many colors.”
Longtime friend and collaborator Matt Damon, however, was much gentler with his reaction to Affleck’s aesthetic choices.
“It’s not one man’s job to tell another man what he can do to his back,” Damon said on “The Daily Show.” “I support him in all of his … artistic expression.”
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