open my $file "<", $image_file or die "grr: $!";
# (You shouldn't print the header manually if you use CGI)
print "Content-type: image/gif\n\n";
print $_ while <$file>;

##</code><code>##

use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

my $cgi = CGI->new;

print $cgi->header; # use $cgi->header("image/gif") for gifs 
print $cgi->start_html;
print $cgi->table( $cgi->Tr( $cgi->td([ $cgi->img({src=>"blarg"}) )));