host language variables

Typically in PHP and MySQL one inserts variables into the database by interpreting the variables directly into the sql so that PHP sends MySQL the _literal_ values that are being inserted. Here is my question: is there any way to avoid this? I'd like to be able to insert large BLOBs without having to have them physically recopied into the SQL that is presented to MySQL. Other database management systems (DB2) for other languages (C, COBOL) allow this, but I have seen no examples of it for PHP and MySQL.