The Bar Code Tattoo, by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Tattoo, by Suzanne Weyn is the latest and greatest form of everything. It is an ID, a certificate, a passport, and a credit card all embedded on your skin. Almost everybody gets it. But Kayla, a regular high school senior, is hesitant about the new technology and its control over her life. The tattoo gave anyone access to your genetic code and private information at the quick scan of the wrist. As the new technology makes more and more aspects of life efficient for the tattooed population, Kayla struggles to avoid getting it. She becomes marked as different in her school and in her community. Her mother and father, who both have gotten the tattoo start to behave differently, becoming depressed and her father even becomes suicidal. Kayla uses this, along with her mother's knowledge that babies are being killed based on their genetic code to remain strong in her refusal to get the tattoo. When her mother begins to go crazy and burn the tattoo off of her wrist, Kayla winds up in the hospital. She is told she will receive the tattoo shortly and she runs away. How will she avoid the government, discover what happened to her father, and find other non-tattooed people?

The Bar Code Tattoo is a thrilling read that will quickly get you hooked on the story. Written in the early 2000s its a fascinating take on the dangers of wide spread technology and government control. While one critique of the story could be its lack of addressing modern cell phones and social media. Yet, I would argue that by focusing on the first, most basic identifying technology, the barcode, Weyn emphasizes how easy it is for any type of technology to attack individualism and create a dystopian world. In fact Weyn makes the horrors of her world so evident that it might be overly disturbing to young readers who watch the transition from "normal" life to one of terror. For older readers however, the intriguing plot forces them to reflect upon their own society. What is the barcode tattoo today?

Reviewed by Rachel R., Grade 12

Glendale Central Library