As Ed McMahon would say, "You are correct, sir!" The "mark" was symbolic. There will be no mark because there already was a mark in the first century. When you consider Revelation was actually written before Jerusalem fell (i.e. before A.D. 70), things begin to make sense. The Beast was representative of Rome (generally) and Nero (specifically). For more on this, check out the following links:
http://kennethgentry.com/Merchant2/backtothefuture.htmI'm still studying this myself but have studied it enough to know that the strict futuristic interpretation of Revelation is full of errors and inconsistencies.
http://www.reformedreader.org/mchart.htm
http://www.bibleprophecy.com/