A man with many tattoos. Ben Affleck may be known for his notable acting career and his off-again, on-again relationship with wife Jennifer Lopez, but his hidden tattoos may be the most intriguing fact about him.

Ben’s most talked about – and biggest – piece of body ink is a multi-colored phoenix tattoo that stretches across his entire back. Fans were stunned to learn that the Air actor had such a large tattoo and was even more shocked that he kept it a secret for so long.

The California native’s tattoo was snapped in December 2015 while he was swimming in Hawaii and initially denied it was real and claimed that it was “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 a while,” Ben told Mario Lopez with Extra in 2016.

The Deep Water star never publicly addressed his “fake” phoenix tattoo after that until four years later during an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

After the former talk show host joked that Ben’s Phoenix tattoo looked like it was “rising from his ass” he revealed it “represents something really important” to him.

“It’s meaningful to me. I like it. It’s something that I sort of kept private. It wasn’t like I was sort of doing photo shoots or whatever. We were two hours north of the city on some island in Hawaii and we didn’t know the paparazzi was there – so, they got a picture of my tattoo, and the sentiment ran.”

The following year, Ben admitted he lied about his bold body art and reflected on the “invasive” photos that he “resented” during a February 2020 interview with the New York Times.

He said, “But you’re right. I could have said, ‘That’s none of your business.’ 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.”

While the Phoenix is the A-lister’s most talked about tattoo, that isn’t his only one! The Way Back actor also has other sweet ink, one of which was featured in Jennifer’s music videos.

Want to know which one? Keep scrolling to see photos of Ben Affleck’s tattoos!