BEN AFFLECK IS having a rough old time of it lately.

Hahn Lionel / ABACA Hahn Lionel / ABACA / ABACA

Between his most recent flick Justice League being a bit of a flop, and his own sexual misconduct coming under scrutiny following #WeinsteinGate, the last thing he needed was anymore attention …

… Which is why he decided to get a large back tattoo, and then lie about whether it’s real or not.

(It is, FYI).

Tattoos are obviously a case of “to each their own”. However, the public have taken issue with Affleck’s massive back piece (say that five times fast). The ink has been the subject of much ridiculing over the last couple of weeks, and even has its own parody account on Twitter.

However, no one went deeper than The New Yorker.

The article describes Affleck, in the photographs taken of him on the beach, as looking like “a defeated Roman senator” and that “the image suggests not just the fall of Affleck, but the fall of man.”

That’s a reach, your honour.

The writer also seemingly takes a pop at Affleck’s weight:

His gut is pooching outward in a way that, in a more enlightened country like, say, France, would perhaps be considered virile, not unlike the lusty Gérard Depardieu in his prime but, in fitness-fascist America, tends to read as Homer Simpsonesque.”

Having not tweeted since December of last year, Affleck took to Twitter to set the record straight.

@NewYorker I’m doing just fine. Thick skin bolstered by garish tattoos.”

So there.

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