my $dbh= DBI->connect('dbi:...', $user, $pass, { RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 0 });
# RaiseError is important so I can leave out all error handling

my $sth= $dbh->prepare(<<'SQL');
    INSERT INTO person SET id=?, first_name=?, last_name=?;
SQL

$sth->execute( undef, $first, $last );
$sth->finish;