Entertainment

Matt Damon's Comments On Ben Affleck's Back Tattoo Show How Great A Friend He Is

by Stephanie Downs
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You can always count on your best friend to keep it pretty real with you. Matt Damon is no exception when it concerns his longtime best friend Ben Affleck and one particularly questionable choice of his. During his appearance on The Daily Show, Matt Damon commented on Ben Affleck's back tattoo, as E! News noted, and his response shows just how good of a friend he really is.

Damon appeared on the Comedy Central program to promote his Water.org initiative, but host Trevor Noah couldn't help but also ask the actor about his friend's back tattoo, which features a phoenix covering Affleck's entire back. It's an... interesting tat, to say the least. Damon's response to it is probably the best that he could have given considering how wild the ink is.

The Jason Bourne star told Noah, "It's not one man's job to tell another man what he can do to his back." He also told the host, "I support him in all of his artistic expression."

Noah said that his response was a "good friend answer" and he's not wrong. Affleck will probably be grateful for his friend's support (even if there's a little bit of fun shade in Damon's comments) seeing as though no one else is into the ink.

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Affleck's tattoo sent the internet ablaze anew when photos of it emerged around March 16. The actor's ink was visible during a Hawaiian vacay. The pics obviously drew more than a fair share of funny reactions on social media.

What makes the whole thing even more wild is that Affleck originally tried to write off the tattoo as fake in 2016. After it originally made headlines in December 2015, many questioned whether the tat was just a fake one that he was donning for a film. He (seemingly) clarified things during an interview with Extra. He told host Mario Lopez, "It's fake for a movie." He continued, and said, "I actually do have a number of tattoos but I try to have them in places where you don’t have to do a lot of cover up they get sort of addictive, tattoos, after awhile.”

It's interesting that the Justice League star would originally deny that the tattoo was real. Obviously, now, since he hasn't been filming a movie for two years, it's clear that the ink is pretty darn real.

While Damon stayed tight-lipped about his friend's tattoo, there were others who couldn't help but comment on the major choice. In March 2016, Affleck's ex-wife Jennifer Garner told Vanity Fair, "You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart.’ A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario?" She continued, "I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.” Garner managed to be slightly shady and totally strong in her response.

Jennifer Lopez, another one of Affleck's exes, also commented on the tattoo when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live, also in March 2016. She said what a lot of others were likely thinking when they saw the ink. She told Andy Cohen, when asked what she thought of the back tat, "It's awful! What are you doing?" She also noted, "His tattoos always have too many colors, they shouldn’t be so colorful. They should be cooler." Well, she made things clear.

While Garner, Lopez, and just about the rest of the world aren't feeling Affleck's back tattoo, at least he'll always have his best friend Damon in his corner to support all of his more "artistic" choices.