diff --git a/app/assets/stylesheets/application.css b/app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
index 13da21e..aab52fe 100644
--- a/app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
+++ b/app/assets/stylesheets/application.css
@@ -527,9 +527,18 @@ li .domain {
 }
 
 li .byline {
+	margin-bottom: -5px;
 	color: #888;
 	font-size: 8.5pt;
 }
+li .byline img.avatar {
+	border-radius: 8px;
+	height: 16px;
+	margin-bottom: 2px;
+	margin-right: 2px;
+	vertical-align: middle;
+	width: 16px;
+}
 li.story .byline {
 	margin-top: 1px;
 }
diff --git a/app/controllers/settings_controller.rb b/app/controllers/settings_controller.rb
index ab4fc32..ff0faba 100644
--- a/app/controllers/settings_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/settings_controller.rb
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ private
       :username, :email, :password, :password_confirmation, :about,
       :email_replies, :email_messages, :email_mentions,
       :pushover_replies, :pushover_messages, :pushover_mentions,
-      :mailing_list_mode
+      :mailing_list_mode, :show_avatars
     )
   end
 end
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index 344b3f2..fcb08fd 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -83,9 +83,9 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
     h
   end
 
-  def avatar_url
+  def avatar_url(size = 100)
     "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/" +
-      Digest::MD5.hexdigest(self.email.strip.downcase) + "?r=pg&d=mm&s=100"
+      Digest::MD5.hexdigest(self.email.strip.downcase) + "?r=pg&d=mm&s=#{size}"
   end
 
   def average_karma
diff --git a/app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb b/app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb
index 31b7207..80fb2cb 100644
--- a/app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/comments/_comment.html.erb
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ class="comment <%= comment.current_vote ? (comment.current_vote[:vote] == 1 ?
         <span class="merge"></span>
       <% end %>
 
+      <% if @user && @user.show_avatars? %>
+        <img src="<%= comment.user.avatar_url(16) %>" class="avatar">
+      <% end %>
+
       <a href="/u/<%= comment.user.username %>"
       <% if !comment.user.is_active? %>
         class="inactive_user"
diff --git a/app/views/settings/index.html.erb b/app/views/settings/index.html.erb
index 9bb0f70..13b44c6 100644
--- a/app/views/settings/index.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/settings/index.html.erb
@@ -170,6 +170,17 @@
       </span>
     </div>
 
+    <br>
+
+    <div class="legend">
+      Miscellaneous Settings
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="boxline">
+      <%= f.label :show_avatars, "Show User Avatars:", :class => "required" %>
+      <%= f.check_box :show_avatars %>
+    </div>
+
 
     <br>
     <%= f.submit "Save All Settings" %>
diff --git a/app/views/stories/_listdetail.html.erb b/app/views/stories/_listdetail.html.erb
index 0eb4f89..406db77 100644
--- a/app/views/stories/_listdetail.html.erb
+++ b/app/views/stories/_listdetail.html.erb
@@ -54,7 +54,11 @@ class="story <%= story.vote && story.vote[:vote] == 1 ? "upvoted" : "" %>
               ms.domain %></a>
           <% end %>
           <span class="byline">
-            by <a href="/u/<%= ms.user.username %>"
+            by
+            <% if @user && @user.show_avatars? %>
+              <img src="<%= ms.user.avatar_url(16) %>" class="avatar">
+            <% end %>
+            <a href="/u/<%= ms.user.username %>"
             <% if ms.user.is_new? %>
               class="new_user"
             <% end %>><%= ms.user.username %></a>
@@ -67,10 +71,18 @@ class="story <%= story.vote && story.vote[:vote] == 1 ? "upvoted" : "" %>
     <% end %>
     <div class="byline">
       <% if story.previewing %>
-        by <a><%= story.user.username %></a>
+        by
+        <% if @user && @user.show_avatars? %>
+          <img src="<%= story.user.avatar_url(16) %>" class="avatar">
+        <% end %>
+        <a><%= story.user.username %></a>
         just now
       <% else %>
-        by <a href="/u/<%= story.user.username %>"
+        <% if @user && @user.show_avatars? %>
+          <img src="<%= story.user.avatar_url(16) %>" class="avatar">
+        <% end %>
+        by
+        <a href="/u/<%= story.user.username %>"
         <% if story.user.is_new? %>
           class="new_user"
         <% end %>><%= story.user.username %></a>
diff --git a/db/migrate/20150313040930_add_user_avatar_pref.rb b/db/migrate/20150313040930_add_user_avatar_pref.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..daac114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20150313040930_add_user_avatar_pref.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+class AddUserAvatarPref < ActiveRecord::Migration
+  def change
+    add_column :users, :show_avatars, :boolean, :default => false
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index 544a8e0..c3a4880 100644
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 #
 # It's strongly recommended that you check this file into your version control system.
 
-ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20150211170052) do
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20150313040930) do
 
   create_table "comments", force: true do |t|
     t.datetime "created_at",                                                                    null: false
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20150211170052) do
     t.integer  "banned_by_user_id"
     t.string   "banned_reason",        limit: 200
     t.datetime "deleted_at"
+    t.boolean  "show_avatars",                          default: false
   end
 
   add_index "users", ["mailing_list_mode"], name: "mailing_list_enabled", using: :btree