Coming to America was released in June 1988 and starred Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones. Prince Akeem (Murphy) protests an arranged marriage and chooses to take his best friend and personal aid, Semmi, with him to America to find a woman to marry. It’s a culture shock for the two who, immediately upon arriving in Queens, New York, have their belongings stolen. They’re forced to quickly adjust to a new way of life, American slang, and working menial jobs. Coming to America is essentially a rom-com that many men actually enjoy watching.
Despite being over three decades old, it’s one of those films I can watch countless times and still laugh. Coming to America is so obviously (and visually) ’80s and yet also timeless.
Say what you will about his more recent films, but Eddie Murphy and his ability to play several characters and create unique voices for each is a talent for which he should be commended.
Over three decades later, Murphy and Hall once again joined forces with Coming 2 America released on Amazon Prime. Have you watched Coming 2 America yet? What did you think of the sequel?
I wasn’t surprised to discover that there are so few tattoos of this specific Eddie Murphy film, but what shocked me is that there aren’t all that many portrait tattoos of the man himself. In fact, there’s likely more Donkey (from Shrek) tattoos than there are ones of him – that’s sad and it needs to be rectified.
Living in Australia, I haven’t seen Arsenio Hall in much else, although he did host a popular late-night talk show for several years. Since I couldn’t find any tattoos of his characters, I just have to share this highly amusing interview he did with Jason Voorhees to promote Friday The 13th, Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.
After re-watching Coming to America, followed by your (potentially first viewing of Coming 2 America) do you think you’ll end going to your favourite tattoo artist for a piece inspired by one (or both) of the films?
I would like to think that if Eddie saw these tattoos he’d have a good chuckle – just like with Fran Drescher, I can hear his iconic laugh in my mind.
The Tattooed Archivist 