In the original version, i.e. in the radio series, who sustains the bruise is revealed in passing. Everything happens in the third half-hour episode (“fit the third”).
Near the beginning of the episode, as Arthur, Ford, Zaphod and Trillian are approaching the seamlingly dead planet Magrathea, the narrator makes a series of revelations and non-revelations:
The deadly nuclear missile attack shortly to be launched by an ancient automatic defence system will merely result in the bruising of somebody's upper arm, and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale. In order that
some sense of mystery should still be preserved no revelation will yet be made
concerning whose upper arm has been bruised.
Around the middle of the episode, when the aforementioned attack occurs, the narrator lays it on again:
It is, of course, more or less at this point that one of our heroes sustains a slight bruise to the upper arm.
The reveal is at the very end of the episode. Each episode ends with the narrator giving misleading clues about the next episode, then the credits, then often one of the characters saying one line which either adds to the humor in that episode or provides another tantalizing clue for the next one. In this episode, that final line is
I'm sorry, but I'd probably be able to cope better if I hadn't bruised my arm.
Oh, and that line is said by
Arthur. (But who else would suffer such trivial mishaps?)
The book retains the forewarning and the description of the actual incident, but not the reveal. I see that as a follow-on meta-joke on the suspense created about such a trivial incident.
The bowl of petunias and sperm whale, however, turn out to have a significant effect on Arthur's life later on.
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