--- title: Ben Affleck Says His Gigantic Back Tattoo Is Garish in Tweet description: Ben Affleck would like to let you know that his feelings are not hurt by what you think of his very large, very colorful back tattoo. canonical: https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-29T17:08:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:44.319Z og:title: Ben Affleck Is Happy to Troll Himself About The Tattoo og:description: "Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos" og:url: https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38db0be10b2b2aae/69892c584ee262c0a5311594/ben-affleck-tweet-new-yorker-tattoos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice'- European Premiere - Red Carpet og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Affleck Is Happy to Troll Himself About The Tattoo twitter:description: "Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38db0be10b2b2aae/69892c584ee262c0a5311594/ben-affleck-tweet-new-yorker-tattoos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Affleck Breaks Silence on Very Large Very Colorful Back Tattoo At Last > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 29, 2018 5:08 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 22: Ben Affleck attends the European Premiere of 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' at Odeon Leicester Square on March 22, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images) LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 22: Ben Affleck attends the European Premiere of 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' at Odeon Leicester Square on March 22, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images) Anthony Harvey—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 29, 2018 5:08 PM UTC Even [Ben Affleck](http://time.com/4517257/ben-affleck-patriots-loss-reaction/) is admitting that his much maligned, very large and [very colorful back tattoo](http://time.com/5212486/matt-damon-defends-ben-affleck-back-tattoo/) is somewhat “garish.” The actor’s gigantic, post-divorce tattoo of a phoenix has captured the fascination (and in some cases, the horror) of not only [two of his exes](http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/ben-affleck-back-tattoo-jennifer-lopez-reacts), but the collective Internet, who recently discovered that the ink is, in fact, real, despite the fact that Affleck claimed it was [a fake one for a role](http://people.com/movies/ben-affleck-reveals-his-massive-back-tattoo-is-fake-for-a-movie/). The renewed interest in Affleck’s back tattoo inspired an _New Yorker_ think piece titled “[The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-great-sadness-of-ben-affleck),” in which writer Naomi Fry posits that Affleck’s notorious ink is a larger metaphor for not a crisis that he might be going through, but a shift in attitudes towards red-blooded American masculinity. > [](https://twitter.com/LittleMissLizz/status/976150923243376640) As it turns out, in addition to being a tattoo enthusiast and an actor, Affleck is also a _New Yorker_ reader, who happened to read Fry’s piece. He took to Twitter on Thursday to tell the _New Yorker_ that despite their assumption that he was sad, he was “doing just fine.” He also acknowledged that his notorious ink is “garish.” As Jennifer Garner might say, [bless his heart](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/jennifer-garner-talks-kids-career-ben-affleck). > [](https://twitter.com/BenAffleck/status/979371324979245056) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/"},"headline":"Ben Affleck Breaks Silence on Very Large Very Colorful Back Tattoo At Last","datePublished":"2018-03-29T17:08:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:44.319Z","description":"\"Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos\"","url":"https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38db0be10b2b2aae/69892c584ee262c0a5311594/ben-affleck-tweet-new-yorker-tattoos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38db0be10b2b2aae/69892c584ee262c0a5311594/ben-affleck-tweet-new-yorker-tattoos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice'- European Premiere - Red Carpet","caption":"'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice'- European Premiere - Red Carpet","creditText":"Anthony Harvey—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/","name":"Ben Affleck Breaks Silence on Very Large Very Colorful Back Tattoo At Last"}}]}] ```