Ben Affleck’s tattoo of a phoenix on his back hasn’t gone down well with either of his exes, as Jennifer Lopez echoed recent comments by his former wife Jennifer Garner by describing the actor’s ink as “awful”.

Affleck, about to star in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and currently filming his new movie Live By Night, was seen sporting an enormous piece of body art on his lower back last summer when he was photographed bending over looking into his car, later revealed to be a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Ben AffleckBen Affleck filming 'Live By Night'

Lopez, who dated Affleck from 2002 to 2004 and at one point was engaged to him, was asked about the tattoo when she appeared on ‘Watch What Happens Live’ on Monday (February 29th). “I would tell him that! I would tell him, ‘What are you doing?’,” she replied, not holding back. “It has too many colours. His tattoos always have too many colours. They shouldn’t be so colourful!”

The 43 year old actor was believed to have got the tattoo at around the same time as his decade-long marriage to Jennifer Garner began to disintegrate last summer, amid rumours of his (alleged) unfaithfulness with their children’s nanny.

More: Jennifer Garner gets candid about the end of her marriage to Ben Affleck

Garner, speaking last week to Vanity Fair, certainly took exception to the imagery inherent in Affleck’s tattoo. “You know what we would say in my hometown about that? ‘Bless his heart.’ A phoenix rising from the ashes. Am I the ashes in this scenario?” Garner asked the incredulously. “I take umbrage. I refuse to be the ashes.”

Affleck and Garner have three children together – daughters Violet and Seraphina (10 & 7 years old) and son Samuel (4). Since their split, they’ve been seen together a number of times, but the separation is definitely final, according to Garner.

“My heart’s a little on the tender side right now,” she continued in her interview, “and it’s always easier to focus on the way you feel hurt, but I know that, with time and some perspective, I’ll have a clearer sense of where I let the system down, because there’s no way I get off in this.”

More: Ben Affleck throwing himself into his work after Jennifer Garner split