After Getting Dragged for His Bad Back Tattoo, Ben Affleck Is Tweeting
A New Yorker story pushed him to comment publicly on his widely criticized body art.
Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
When word got out about Ben Affleck’s back tattoo, an objectively funny multicolored phoenix, the star stayed silent while the entire world dragged him.
The tat represented a clear lapse in judgment on the Boston-bred Oscar-winner’s part, and the matter was made worse because instead of owning up to it, Affleck claimed that the mythological bird ink was “fake for a movie.” So the press (ourselves included) and the rest of the public did what it does: It mocked him relentlessly. And it all happened without a peep from the star himself.
Until now.
Readers, Ben Affleck is tweeting, using his Twitter account for the first time in months. The rare response comes after a piece appeared on newyorker.com called “The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck,” which probed the the tattoo episode for grander meaning about the state of male angst, and fit it into a narrative about Affleck’s failed relationships, the state of his career, and his apparent general malaise.
Affleck’s is the kind of middle-aged-white-male sadness that the Internet loves to mock—a mocking that depends on a rejection of this sadness, as well as a hedging identification with it: https://t.co/iDkzcDoLIv
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 25, 2018
Several days later, Affleck’s account, which had been dormant since December, snapped back to life.
“I’m doing just fine,” he wrote in a Thursday morning message that tagged the be-monocled magazine. “Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.”
@NewYorker I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) March 29, 2018
Then he tweeted his thanks to Ryan Broderick, a Buzzfeed editor who said he was “rooting for” the actor, and he retweeted a tweet that described the New Yorker piece as “a sophisticated form of subtle bullying.”
Personally I am LIVING for Ben Affleck RTing people talking about Ben Affleck pic.twitter.com/s6RFGJMpi6
— Megan Johnson (@megansarahj) March 30, 2018
New Yorker staff writer Naomi Fry, who wrote the piece, responded not long after, without naming the star directly. “what is life!!!” she wrote.
