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Ben Affleck inadvertently flashed a bit of infamous ink while out in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Over 10 years ago, the A-lister raised eyebrows after he debuted a massive, midlife crisis back tattoo of a colorful phoenix that he initially insisted was fake before admitting it was indeed real.
He also has a tattoo of a dolphin on his lower back that Page Six dubbed his 'dolphin tramp stamp' in November of 2011.
It's not often the world gets to see the tattoos, but Affleck, 53, accidentally displayed a glimpse of them while out in Santa Monica on Monday.
A hint of the rarely-seen designs were visible as Affleck bent over by a car door, his shirt riding up and jeans hanging low.
Affleck's phoenix tattoo was first glimpsed in the summer of 2015, and was unveiled in full in December.
Ben Affleck displayed his rarely-seen midlife crisis back tattoo while out in Santa Monica on Monday
The actor was clad in an off-white shirt and jeans, clothing which still managed to inadvertently show off the inking
However, Ben insisted the inking wasn't real at the time, telling Extra's Mario Lopez: '[It's] fake for a movie.
'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 came about that the tattoo was in fact real when he was spotted shirtless on the beach in March 2018 whilst filming new flick, Triple Frontier.
The tattoo of the phoenix appeared to rankle his ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who told Vanity Fair in February 2016 of the ink, 'You know what we would say in my hometown about that? "Bless his heart."'
Garner added, 'A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.'
His ex-wife Jennifer Lopez was also critical of the ink in a February 2016 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, as she declared it to be 'awful.'
She added at the time, 'I would tell him that! Like, what are you doing? It has too many colors. His tattoos always had too many colors.
'They shouldn’t be so colorful, you know what I mean? They should be cooler.'
After initially denying it was real, Affleck ended up defending the inking during a 2019 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The back tattoo was firs revealed back in 2015, but at the time Affleck insisted it was fake
Affleck was spotted dressed smartly while out in Santa Monica on Monday
As DeGeneres pointed out: 'Your back tattoo got a lot of attention', he admitted: 'Not so much positive! It's a phoenix'.
With DeGeneres quick to quip: 'rising from your a**', Affleck continued: 'I was about to say it represents something really important to me!
'It's meaningful to me. I like it. It's not something I sort of kept private. The sentiment ran against... but I love my tattoo, I'm happy with it.'
Affleck's tattoo was lambasted in a March 2018 piece from The New Yorker titled 'The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck,' a story which sparked a personal reply from the actor.
'I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos,' he posted to X, then Twitter.
Affleck told The New York Times in February of 2020 that he lied about the tattoo because was resentful the image circulated, as 'it felt invasive.'
'I could have said "That’s none of your business,"' he said. 'I guess I got a kick out of messing with Extra. "Is your tattoo real or not real?" Of course, it’s real! No, I put a fake tattoo on my back and then hid it.'
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