Research Paper On The Barcode Tattoo By Suzanne Weyn

The Barcode Tattoo essay

The Barcode Tattoo is a Dystopian novel by Suzanne Weyn. In this book, the setting is in a future New York City, the year being 2025. In the book, Kayla, the protagonist, is turning 17 soon, and will soon have to get the barcode tattoo, but her mother tells her not to get it, and Kayla becomes suspicious of what is really coded into that tattoo.
In the Barcode Tattoo, the idea was founded by a new system of belief. The tattoo had started in Europe and Asia, and then became required. It had started spreading to America slowly after. Global-1, a company that took over the postal industry after the crash of USPS, gives out the barcodes at their local offices, and endorses the idea. The idea of the barcode is so that

you can easily purchase things, and have all of your records in the bar code. The President had stated after it became law to have the tattoo after 17, was that it was meant to keep everybody up to date and on the same page. His idea was to have an America where everyone was at the same level, and had the same methods of payment.
Kayla, The main character, started realizing things in the beginning of the book.

Kayla had decided to skip school because she had just found out she could not get an art scholarship. When she got to her house, she saw a huge scene. There were ambulances and police everywhere. She later then found out her father had killed himself. When Kayla asked why, her mother had said “That tattoo killed your father”. Kayla didn’t know what she meant, and her mother was violently trying to scrub off her tattoo. Kayla left her house, feeling hopeless. She went next door, talking to her neighbor Gene, asking him about the barcode tattoo. He said the barcode tattoo was bad, and she shouldn’t get it. Gene is an older guy, so he has had some experience that he shared with Kayla. Gene, a long time ago, had given out tattoos in a different country, and had been asked often times to have a barcode tattooed onto their wrists and arms. He saw many people coming in, but not for the usual barcode tattoo, but to get it removed. Kayla then started to realize the reality of what was happening, and she didn’t like

it.
The theme of this novel is the danger of a particular policy. It could also be allowing too much power to one group. In the book, there is a law that is passed that every person 17 or above is required to have the tattoo. There are articles and guides on how to get your friends to get the tattoo. Global-1 is also a group that has a lot of power. They are a huge, powerful business that shows public support for the tattoo. They can give you the tattoo, and they want people to get the tattoo, at whatever cost it may be.
Individuality is a big thing in this novel, because people start to notice everyone is becoming mindless and becoming more like each other as they get the tattoo. Kayla, and her friends the “Decode” group, is trying to stop this from happening. The whole country is being influenced into getting this barcode tattoo. The resisters are arrested after the law is taken into effect, and sometimes beaten. There was one incident at Kaylas school where the group “Decode” was involved in a fight. Football players had thrown them around like nothing when the group had been walking through the hallways with their ‘zines (Magazines), and then the football coach had caught them and sent them to the office. This was one of the examples of how the government has put a image into societies head about how everyone should have the barcode tattoo.
In the novel, citizens have little control of things. They think they have a lot of freedoms, but don’t. When presented with the argument, they say stuff like for example when arguing about the tattoo, decode said the tattoo can track you wherever you go, and Amber said if you have nothing to hide, why worry. The government has main control over all its citizens, and the side org. Global-1 is part of that control. Like our world, citizens are free to roam, shop, eat, hang out. The only problem is that for most of these, having a barcode tattoo is required. Citizens hired by global-1 are hired to attack citizens who do not have the tattoo, and sometimes it can go to far.
People should read my novel because it makes sense.

It doesn’t lie really, but tells a dark, hidden truth. As time goes on, it is becoming more easy for the government to track us, for example our phones can be tracked by all sorts of people, hackers included. Records of our life can be stored online too, making it easier for people to find. Also, in their world, there are things like credit cards, but those are becoming less usable in stores, because the tattoo is what you use to pay for things. In our world, we shop online, and stores are having to shut down because of limited money. These are similar because smartphones could be compared to the barcode tattoo in many ways. So, I think you should read this book because it gives you an outlook on a society not to different from ours, and as we go further into the future, it might seem more and more similar to the dystopian

novel.