LOS ANGELES, March 30 —  After years of denial, Ben Affleck has finally admitted that his massive back tattoo is real.

The actor broke his months-long silence on social media to respond to a New Yorker satire article titled "The Great Sadness of Ben Affleck” that lambasted his ink.

At one point, the article suggested that the tattoo of an enormous phoenix rising from the ashes symbolised "not just the fall of Affleck but the coming fall of man.”

In an apparent response to the article, Affleck wrote to the New Yorker’s official Twitter handle: "I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.”

The tattoo first gained prominence when Affleck was snapped on the set of Live by Night in 2015.

At the time, he claimed the ink was fake, and that he’d gotten it for a movie.

Affleck’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner famously had less than kind words to say about it when she was asked her opinion by Vanity Fair back in 2016.

"You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart,’” she was quoted as saying.

"Am I the ashes in this scenario? …I refuse to be the ashes.”