MYSQL and use of blobs

[Raaijmakers, Vincent (GE Infrastructure)]

It is the first time that I use blobs in mysql.
Please help me out here.....

Using MSSQLdb and python 2.3.4 I was surprised to see how my information was stored in the blob.
My goal is to store JPG images in the blob. Well, it stores it but as a string of bytes:
'x0dx0fxffxa3......'

So, when reading back that information into my python environment, it seems that I need to translate the value back to the original binary format?

Sniffed for an hour in the asciibin, binhex and other modules...

Somebody with experience to help me out here?
Is there something fundamentally that I do wrong here? In storage, retreiving...

Any help would be very appreciated.
Vincent