The Bar Code Tattoo (2004) is a young adult dystopian novel by Suzanne Weyn. In a futuristic version of the United States, all citizens are required by law to have their right wrists tattooed with a bar code that details their genetic information and determines their place in society. The novel follows Kayla Reed, who flees after the suspicious deaths of her parents and joins a rebel group of tattoo resisters in the Adirondack mountains. The Bar Code Tattoo has been named by the American Library Association (ALA) as a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and by the Nevada Library Association as a Best Young Adult Book. It is the first installment of a trilogy and is followed by The Bar Code Rebellion (2006) and The Bar Code Prophecy (2012).

This guide refers to the 2004 paperback edition published by Scholastic.

Content Warning: Both the source material and this guide contain descriptions of violence, racism, and suicide, along with discussions of mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and depression. The source text also employs stigmatizing language around mental health conditions.

Plot Summary

Kayla Marie Reed is a teenager and aspiring artist living in a futuristic version of the United States. A corporation called Global-1 controls the world’s resources, and its founder, Loudon Waters, rules the country as president. Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the main source of many creative fields, including artwork, and computer skills are a prerequisite for pursuing higher education. Physical currency has long since been replaced by ecards, and even these will soon be replaced entirely by the new bar code tattoo—a scannable tattoo on the inner right wrist that serves as a personal identifier.

One day, Kayla’s guidance counselor tells her that she will be unable to attend college because of her low grades in computer skills. After the meeting, a dejected Kayla crosses paths with a school peer, Mfumbe Taylor, who comforts her. Kayla’s best friend, Amber Thorn, excitedly shows Kayla her new bar code tattoo, but Kayla is wary of the new tattoo that everyone older than age 17 has been getting. Kayla’s father has recently fallen into a depression and lost his job with the FBI, and she believes that the bar code tattoo is to blame.

Now, Kayla skips school and goes to the mall to buy Amber a birthday gift. At the mall, everyone is using their bar code tattoos to pay. When Kayla returns home, she discovers that her father has died by suicide. Her mother, Ashley, is extremely upset and blames the bar code tattoo, but local news outlets attribute the death to depression that was caused by unemployment.

In the days after her father’s death by suicide, Kayla begins having unexplainable visions and her mother begins violently scrubbing at her own bar code tattoo in increasingly desperate efforts to remove it. Kayla’s neighbor, Gene, has been forced to get the tattoo for his job at a Global-1 post office; he is also tasked with administering the tattoo to others. Gene believes that the bar code tattoos are hiding something sinister, because once people obtain their tattoo, their lives either quickly spiral downhill or they have unprecedented good luck. Gene plans to access restricted files on the bar code tattoo to discover what Global-1 is hiding. Kayla’s mom mentions that Kayla’s father was looking into the restricted bar code files before his death.

With Kayla’s 17th birthday looming, she becomes involved with a school clique affiliated with Decode—a tattoo resister group led by Senator David Young. The group includes five students: Mfumbe, Zekeal, Allyson, August, and Nedra. Kayla is fascinated with their magazine, KnotU2, which openly speaks against the bar code tattoo, claiming that it infringes on civil liberties.

Kayla’s mom forgets her 17th birthday because she has begun taking heavy-duty tranquilizers that she has stolen from her workplace. Amber takes Kayla to the post office to get her tattoo, but Kayla changes her mind while in line, just as gunshots ring out. She learns that Gene has been shot and killed by Global-1 security agents for stealing computer passwords and for causing a disturbance by refusing to tattoo willing citizens.

Two weeks later, Kayla still has not gotten the tattoo, and Amber’s family has begun having extremely poor luck. Her parents’ bar codes are being rejected everywhere. They have also been fired from their jobs and are now forced to sell their house for extra money. They plan to move away and live with Amber’s cousin because they can no longer afford to survive on their own.

Kayla gets a job at Artie’s Art—the only place in town that will hire someone without a bar code tattoo. Kayla also begins attending secret KnotU2 meetings in an abandoned warehouse. In the meetings, the group discusses article ideas for the magazine and uses Allyson’s dad’s virtual reality headset to contact other rebel groups across the country. When Kayla uses the headset, she contacts a woman named Eutonah, who leads a rebellion group in the Adirondack Mountains. Eutonah’s group is filled with resisters who have psychic abilities. With the advent of new, restrictive laws requiring the bar code tattoo, the KnotU2 group agrees to meet in the Adirondacks when the time comes for them to flee.

Meanwhile, Kayla digs through her father’s old FBI file and discovers that the bar code tattoos actually record each person’s genetic code. If any unfavorable peculiarities are found in someone’s genetics—such as a predisposition for diseases or mental health conditions—the tattoo will make life for that person more difficult in efforts to marginalize people who are deemed to have undesirable traits. Kayla discovers that the disadvantages embedded within her father’s code include genes that render a person prone to alcohol use disorder, iconoclastic tendencies, and hallucinatory schizophrenia. Because Kayla herself has recently begun having visions, she is certain that if she gets the code, her life will take a downward spiral, just like her father and the Thorn family experienced.

Kayla begins secretly dating Zekeal. One night, at his apartment, she catches a glimpse of his emails and realizes that he is an undercover recruitment agent for Tattoo Generation, or “TattooGen”—a militant group of young people working for Global-1. He and others like him have been tasked with converting resisters and convincing them to get the tattoo. Zekeal has already seduced Nedra into getting a tattoo and joining TattooGen. Now that Nedra has been converted, Kayla realizes that Zekeal is coming after her next.

Kayla returns home one night to find her mother attempting to burn her tattoo off. In the process, the house catches on fire. Kayla wakes in the hospital, where doctors deliver news of her mother’s death and plan to give Kayla the bar code tattoo. Kayla flees the hospital and stows away in the car of an elderly couple—Toz and Mava—who are fleeing to Canada to be with their daughter.

Soon, Nedra appears on every news platform, calling Kayla a wanted, untattooed criminal who is charged with murdering her mother and running from the law. When a chase by the Globalofficers—the law enforcement of Global-1—causes Toz and Mava to crash their car on the highway, they encourage Kayla to abandon them and continue her journey to the Adirondacks on foot.

Eventually, Kayla finds a settlement in the wilderness closer to the Adirondacks, where she reunites with Mfumbe. Mfumbe tells her that the KnotU2 group fell apart shortly after her disappearance, with everyone succumbing to societal pressures in different ways. Zekeal and Nedra revealed themselves as TattooGen agents, while Allyson got the tattoo to follow her dream career in genetics, and August got the tattoo out of necessity.

Kayla stays with Mfumbe in his cabin for a while, but eventually, the camp is discovered by Globalofficers, forcing the teenagers to flee. For weeks, Kayla and Mfumbe journey to the Adirondacks, but Kayla soon becomes sick. When Mfumbe attempts to steal medicine for her, he is arrested. Kayla continues alone and eventually comes to a base camp in the mountains, where she reunites with August. (Shortly after getting his tattoo, he realized the extent of his mistake, so he burned his tattoo off with acid and joined the Adirondacks resistance group.)

August points Kayla in the direction of Whiteface Mountain, where Eutonah resides. On her hike up the mountain, Kayla is discovered by Zekeal. He attempts to convert her to Tattoo Gen, but she resists and runs away. Eutonah finds her and brings her into the camp. As the weeks pass, Kayla learns to access her latent psychic abilities alongside the other resisters and discovers that she can envision the future and communicate telepathically.

Kayla sends an email to Amber from the camp, inadvertently alerting Globalofficers to their location. The resistance is infiltrated. Unbeknownst to Kayla, Mfumbe recently escaped Global-1 and made his way to the resistance camp. He arrives independently, just as Nedra and Zekeal invade the camp along with Global-1 officers amongst the officers attacking the camp. Nedra and Zekeal’s goal is to apprehend Kayla and Mfumbe. Although Zekeal manages to shoot Kayla in the shoulder, she uses her psychic abilities to knock him unconscious.

A month later, Kayla corresponds with Amber via handwritten letters that are hand-delivered by secret postmen. After the Globalofficer assault, the resistance was scattered, but its members have slowly been reuniting. Kayla and Mfumbe now live together in a cabin in the mountains. Eutonah is being held in a Global-1 prison but speaks with Kayla telepathically. On a broader scale, Senator David Young is rallying every possible resister to march on Washington, D.C. in defiance of the bar code tattoo. Kayla comes to understand that her visions of the future show her and Mfumbe joining the resisters in Washington, D.C., so she, Mfumbe, and August agree to journey to the capital.