Kayla finds herself loving a member of the group, Zekeal. She joins the resistance group Decode, when she turns 17, the legal age to get the barcode. No school or job would accept you, you could not buy food without this tattoo, she could not live without it, yet she continued fighting.

With her entire life imprinted on her arm for everyone to see, she wants more privacy and control, but this was a difficult demand. While her friends and family begin by praising the bar code tattoo, Kayla finds herself doubting it and refusing to receive this tattoo. Kayla Reed starts having a unique perspective on things. The book essentially follows the life of Kayla, who is the main character. The fictional setting is clearly a direct reflection of what our current one will lead up to. The governments obsession with perfection, the idea of not being able to be accepted in art school due to lack of computer skills, having fine arts neglected, originality being inferior to conformity, having all your information, medical records, credit card bills able accessed by everyone merely by a scan, all of these things seem very likely to happen. Kayla’s futuristic location is based on what our society today could lead up to. Kayla sets out to find the “White face”, where she has felt will be her key to freedom, the “White Face” sends out to be an escape to liberty, being the Whiteface Mountain, where she meets up with like-minded people, and learns to free herself with her mind. In this futuristic book, 14 years ahead of our current date ( year 2025), Canada is still remaining free of the barcode, though it has been said that Asia and Europe have all made the barcode tattoo a law. The barcode tattoo’s main setting is located in the United States, where the barcode tattoo is law. This story is a powerful reflection of life today. This tattoo is no longer a preference, but a law, and those who rise above it, such as the main character, are rejected and shunned. However, in reality, this tattoo ends up destroying people’s lives.

The tattoo has all your information stored on it, it is supposed to make your life easier, without all the cards and papers you just have it encoded on your arm. Have you ever craved perfection? Have you ever felt obsessed with efficiency? Have you ever felt like you were helpless under an authorities command? The barcode tattoo by Suzanne Weyn is a great book, reflecting these points, about a corrupt society, where everyone is forced to have a barcode tattooed on their arm.

The Barcode Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn