--- title: Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo description: People have made fun of Ben Affleck's back tattoo for years. But he's still defending it on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' canonical: https://time.com/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/ author: Rachel E. Greenspan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-14T17:26:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:05.404Z og:title: Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo og:description: 'Luckily, I’m the one who has it' og:url: https://time.com/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo twitter:description: 'Luckily, I’m the one who has it' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'I Love My Tattoo.' Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Mar 14, 2019 5:26 PM UTC by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Mar 14, 2019 5:26 PM UTC As far as crazy Hollywood tattoos go, [Ben Affleck](http://time.com/5530461/ben-affleck-on-jimmy-kimmel/)‘s back tattoo of a phoenix is infamous. But he’s not giving up on defending it any time soon. The [_Argo_ star](http://time.com/5530424/jimmy-kimmel-batman/) opened up about the tattoo on [Thursday’s episode](https://people.com/style/ben-affleck-loves-his-massive-back-phoenix-tattoo/) of _The Ellen DeGeneres Show._ “I love my tattoo. I’m very happy with it,” Affleck told DeGeneres. “Luckily, I’m the one who has it.” Since the [ink’s debut dating back to 2015](http://time.com/5220678/ben-affleck-new-yorker-tweet-response-back-tattoo/), when paparazzi caught a photo of the actor from behind on a beach, nobody’s been quite sure why the _Argo_ star had such art on his body. People raised eyebrows again last year when photos of him in Hawaii surfaced online, again showing the ink. “It’s meaningful to me, I like it,” Affleck said. > [](https://twitter.com/LittleMissLizz/status/976150923243376640) The phoenix rising above the ashes may represent his own experience after a public divorce from Jennifer Garner. Garner herself commented on the tattoo in a [2016 interview](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/02/jennifer-garner-talks-kids-career-ben-affleck) with _Vanity Fair:_ “Am I the ashes in this scenario?” Affleck told Mario Lopez on _Extra_ in 2016 that the tattoo was “fake,” and “for a role.” But fans on Twitter breathed a sigh of relief at the actor’s honesty last year when he admitted to having the tattoo, in response to a [_New Yorker_ article](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-appearances/the-great-sadness-of-ben-affleck) that posited a deep sadness within Affleck’s deep sadness within him. “I’m doing just fine,” he wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/BenAffleck/status/979371324979245056) DeGeneres also spoke to Affleck about his charity work with his organization, the Eastern Congo Initiative. Watch Ben Affleck on _Ellen_ below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/"},"headline":"'I Love My Tattoo.' Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo","datePublished":"2019-03-14T17:26:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:05.404Z","description":"'Luckily, I’m the one who has it'","url":"https://time.com/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel E. Greenspan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/5551725/ben-affleck-on-back-tattoo/","name":"'I Love My Tattoo.' Ben Affleck Is Not Done Defending His Elaborate Back Tattoo"}}]}] ```