Why Ben Affleck Loves His Massive Phoenix Tattoo

He first debuted the ink in late 2015 and reviews were not exactly favorable.

Ben Affleck cares not about your shade of his giant phoenix back tattoo. 

The actor, who stars in the new Netflix movie Triple Frontier, had debuted his colorful ink in late 2015, months after he and ex-wife Jennifer Garner announced their split. On the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, Affleck discussed his tattoo and the "not-so-much-positive" media attention it has received.

"It's a phoenix," Affleck said. 

"Rising from your ass," Ellen DeGeneres added.

"Yes, it's a phoenix rising from my ass," Affleck said. "And I was about to say it represents something really important to me, but you know what? Maybe just, we'll skip that. It's meaningful to me. I like it."

"So [the paparazzi] got a picture of my tattoo," he said. "And yeah, the sentiment ran, you know, against, which I think- I love my tattoo. I'm very happy with it."

When Affleck's tattoo was first revealed to the world, a source told E! News that the ink was real, but the actor himself told Extra months later that it was "fake for a movie."

Garner weighed in on his back tattoo in 2016.

"You know what we would say in my hometown about that? 'Bless his heart,'" Garner told Vanity Fair. "A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes."