Matt Damon Defends BFF Ben Affleck’s Right to Tattoo His Own Back However He Wants

Matt Damon is taking a stand for bestie Ben Affleck‘s right to tattoo his back, no matter how large or colorful the ink.

The infamous back tattoo, a colorful phoenix that takes up the majority of Affleck’s back, made headlines when it was spotted in the summer of 2015 following his divorce from Jennifer Garner. In 2016, Affleck told Extra that the ink was “fake for a movie,” but hype surrounding the massive tattoo resurged when the actor was spotted last week training shirtless for his upcoming movie Triple Frontier.

In an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Damon weighed in on Affleck’s distinctive ink.

“It’s not one man’s job to tell another man what he can do to his back,” he said. “I support him in all of his ‘artistic expression.’ ”

Damon’s answer was more diplomatic than both of Affleck’s exes, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez.

Jennifer Garner was candid in her thoughts about the very large tattoo in a 2016 Vanity Fair feature.

“You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart,’” she said. “A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.”

Jennifer Lopez, the original Jennifer in Bennifer, didn’t mince her words when it came to her critique of the tattoo during an episode of Watch What Happens Live.

“It’s awful! What are you doing?” The actress also added that “his tattoos always have too many colors, they shouldn’t be so colorful. They should be cooler.”