FTN's Important Life Observation of the Day, July 13, 2026

I know you all have been breathlessly waiting for my next post on this subject. Some of you have been wondering: Is FTN ok? Has he been kidnapped by ICE? Did he die? Did his car breakdown in the middle of the desert? Is he passed out in the street near Guthrie's Alley Cat in downtown Bakersfield?

Nah, I've just been dealing with some things that are Nobody's business. (See what I did there?)

Anyway, here is my next Important Life Observation of the Day.

I noticed this the other day when I was working out at the gym. I saw this everywhere I worked. On women, on men, on young guys and girls, on old farts, on pets - no, wait - I must have exceeded my maximum heart rate when I thought I saw a pet in the gym.

However, I have concluded that after these observations that one of the great authors of the past wrote a book that was really not about the stories in that book, but was a major predictor of the future. It was so prescient (did I spell that right?), that after hearing me out, you must agree with FTN.

That book is The Illustrated Man. Written in 1951, it's a collection of 18 different short stories about a guy whose body is covered in tattoos, with each one telling a different tale.  In 1969 it was even made into a movie starring Rod Steiger. 

So, as I'm working out on the elliptical, 2 or 3 young women walk by with various tattoos on their shoulders, a guy on the floor below me is lifting weights and has tats on his shoulders, arms, and legs, another guy walks by me with tats on his neck and chest, and...well, you get the picture.

FTN is old enough to remember when the only people who had tats were ex-sailors or military men who had a heart with an arrow and the word Mom on their arms, or, maybe some motorcycle gang members with tats of various sorts. Or maybe, just maybe, a woman with a small tat in a, er, uh, um, intimate area visible only to that special someone. (Don't ask me how I know that but it has to do with someone I knew a long time ago who dumped me for some other guy 3 months after I traveled 2500 miles to live with her - but, I digress.)

However, today? They are everywhere, seemingly on everyone. No matter where you go, tattoos are ubiquitous now. 

If Ray Bradbury, the author of The Illustrated Man was not known as a visionary before, Nobody will be hard pressed not to recognize him as a visionary now! (See what I did there again?)

So what do you think? Do you agree with me or not? Let me know in the comments below.