What is the meaning behind "the illustrated man" film? (1969)

Cafe Society
1

I just saw the “Illustrated Man” film with Rod Steiger from 1969. It freaked me out.

Ignoring the other stories, what is the deal with the body art? I don’t get it at all – why and how did the lady go back in to the future?

It just strikes me as weird without any meaning behind it.

Is this a case of a bad movie adaptation? Or was it just supposed to be freaky?

Another thing is that the bodyart isn’t as freaky now as it must have been in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Lots of tatoos around.

2

Bradbury’s Illustrated Man was a collection of short stories, tied together by a framing story of a chance encounter between the narrator and a man covered with phenomenally detailed tattoos. As the narrator looked at any one tattoo, it would start to move like a movie image… and you would segue into the next story.

It was merely a narrative device to hang the short stories on. The movie may have tried to pump up the framing story, but there was little there to work with…