Shellyne Rodriguez, a former City University of New York (CUNY) professor known for a 2023 incident in which she threatened a reporter with a machete, is now operating a tattoo parlor in New York City that features politically themed designs. The business, called Comrade Comadre, is described on social media as a “speakeasy tattoo parlor and community library.” It specializes in tattoos inspired by communist and radical political imagery.
Rodriguez, 46, was dismissed from Hunter College in 2023 shortly after the widely publicized altercation with Post reporter Reuven Fenton, during which she reportedly held a machete to his neck and threatened to “chop him up.” Since then, she has embraced tattooing as a new vocation, showcasing her work on the parlor’s Instagram account. Designs offered include symbols such as the red five-pointed star and the sickle, both associated with Soviet iconography, as well as other politically charged imagery linked to social justice movements.
Among Rodriguez’s clients is Ruth Wilson Gilmore, a 76-year-old professor at CUNY’s Graduate Center and advocate for prison abolition, who received a small red star tattoo. Gilmore’s husband, Craig, a community organizer aged 58, also was tattooed with a sickle reminiscent of the emblem on the former Soviet flag. Rodriguez has also inked other radical motifs, such as barbed wire symbolizing Palestinian land defense, and a portrait of Italian communist theorist Antonio Gramsci.
The tattoo parlor’s Instagram account also serves as a platform to promote literature with radical themes, including titles like "In Defense of Looting" by Vicky Osterweil, "The Radical Politics Coloring Book," and "Anarchy Explained to Children." Rodriguez herself has tattooed politically significant words on her body, including the Arabic term “sumud,” meaning steadfastness, which is associated with the Gaza flotilla linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Rodriguez’s tenure in academia has been marked by controversy beyond the machete incident. She was terminated from Cooper Union in 2024 following allegations related to antisemitic social media posts. Despite these setbacks, she remains employed part-time at the Parsons School of Design at The New School.
In 2025, Rodriguez received $407,000 from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs to create a 23-foot-tall public monument in The Bronx. The sculpture, which features Black Power fists and incorporates brick, steel, and terracotta, was unveiled in November 2025. Rodriguez stated that the artwork was conceived during a period of heightened scrutiny over the “violent foundations of the United States.”
An analyst from the Manhattan Institute, Stu Smith, commented on Rodriguez and her association with CUNY, describing the institution as harboring unchecked radicalism among its faculty. He expressed concern over what he described as a tarnishing of CUNY’s reputation by such activist professors.