Justice League actor Ben Affleck was photographed by paparazzi down in Hawaii on Thursday, but nobody was focusing on his beach bod once the photos hit the Internet.
Affleck was spotted shirtless on the beach (he’s filming a new movie titled Triple Frontier) with his massive back tattoo on full display. The image inked into his back shows a massive, multi-colored flying phoenix with a tail that stretches down past his waist.
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Ben Affleck and Jared Leto’s Joker have the same tattoo on their backs?! 😂 pic.twitter.com/4CGXsEfncv
— Batman-News.com (@BatmanNewsCom) March 16, 2018
Ben Affleck’s Giant Back Tattoo Is Real and It’s Spectacular: Ben Affleck recently showcased his massive back tattoo in public two years after he called it “fake,” spurring a lot of feelings on Twitter. Affleck was first photographed… https://t.co/H3BuYLY4ys pic.twitter.com/NQAeDI0NSA
— Rose Linda (@agbota3) March 19, 2018
While this marks the first time fans have been able to see the tattoo in its full glory, fans have been speculating about it as far back as 2015. Affleck was spotted just after news broke of his divorce from Jennifer Garner and one shot caught a small glimpse at the lower part of the image.
The tattoo appeared once again in December when a set photo of Affleck’s self-directed drama Live By Night was leaked out showing Affleck wearing an open-back gown that showed off a good chunk of the tattoo. There was speculation at the time that it was merely a fake, one that Affleck needed for his character in the film. But Live By Night was released in theaters months ago, so that wouldn’t explain why he still has it now.
Affleck addressed the rumors during a promotional interview for Justice League, but did not outright admit what the tattoo was or why he got it.
“I have a lot of tattoos. It’s true, I do,” Affleck said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. He went on to say the image didn’t have “a good representation of it in the media” and that he was keeping it a secret for a reason
“I don’t have them places where you can see them, because that’s private,” he said.
Known is mythology as a creature that can be reborn from the ashes of fire, many assumed the tattoo was in reference to Affleck’s relationship with Garner ending. When asked about it in Vanity Fair in February, Garner wasn’t thrilled by where she fit in that phoenix metaphor.
“You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart,’” Garner said. “A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.”
Along with Triple Frontier, Affleck is currently working on the pilot of a television series, City on a Hill, serving as a producer on the 2019 film Witness for the Prosecution and is still signed on to play Batman once again in the Matt Reeves-directed solo superhero film, but details about that film remain up in the air.
