Ben Affleck has been spotted with his huge back tattoo once again on show – confirming the ink is in fact real.
Fans got the first glimpse of the back piece, which is a full colour picture of a phoenix taking flight from the ashes, in 2015, but Affleck told Mario Lopez on U.S. TV show Extra a year later that the ink was temporary.
"(It's) fake for a movie," he explained. "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."
However, as he hit the beach shirtless in Hawaii on Friday, almost two years later, Affleck was once again spotted showing off the tattoo.
The 45-year-old was papped during a training session alongside Charlie Hunnam, Oscar Isaac and Garrett Hedlund as the actors prepared for their upcoming film, Triple Frontier.
Affleck reportedly got the ink shortly after his split from ex-wife Jennifer Garner, who took immediate offence to the design being a phoenix rising from the ashes.
"You know what we would say in my hometown about that? "Bless his heart,'" she told Vanity Fair in 2016. "A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario? I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes."
And ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, who dated Affleck in 2003, gave her honest opinion about the tat to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live.
"It's awful! What are you doing?" she laughed. "His tattoos always have too many colors, they shouldn't be so colorful. They should be cooler."
Affleck has a vast array of tattoos, including a dolphin on his right hip, barbed wire across his right bicep, a skull and crossbones on his right arm and initials inscribed on his shoulder blade.