Ben Affleck’s phoenix rising back tattoo was born the summer of 2015. It’s almost three years old. And, as I posted earlier this week, we are still talking about it. Because he gave it an extended life story by lying about whether or not it was real. Sure looks like it’s real. Want to see it again? You do. And you don’t. It’s one of those, isn’t it?
Ben’s best friend, Matt Damon, was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah this week promoting his work with Water.org. And that f-cking tattoo is even inserting itself now into Matt’s schedule. Because Matt was asked about it. This was his response:
“It’s not one man’s job to tell another man what he can do to his back. I support him in all of his ‘artistic expression.”
Of course he supports him. Supporting Ben Affleck seems like it’s been Matt Damon’s side hustle since they became famous. He’s probably Ben’s most effective publicist. Up until recently, it’s always been Ben who’s the f-ckup and Matt who holds it down. Matt’s the Elizabeth to Ben’s Margaret. Do you remember how Matt defended Ben after Bennifer? This was in 2015 during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“There’s nobody who’s more misunderstood.”
Is that really Ben Affleck’s problem? Is the back tattoo about being “misunderstood”? At the time, Matt went on to say that:
"Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been farther apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez. He just got cast as this person that he wasn't. It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn't fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all. And through his work, he climbed from the bottom of the mountain all the way back up to the top and past where either of us had ever been."
Kind of like a phoenix, right? Matt believes in the phoenix.