Given the appropriate `columnType`, MySQL and PostgreSQL will handle storing buffers for you.

### Model

```js
module.exports = {
  attributes: {
    name: {
      type: 'string',
    },
    avatar: {
      type: 'ref',
      columnType: 'mediumblob' // <-- for MySQL.  Use `bytea` for PostgreSQL.
    }
  }
};
```

### In `sails console`...

```
sails> var image = fs.readFileSync('/path/to/image.png');
sails> User.create({name: 'joe', avatar: image}).exec(console.log);
```

### To retrieve

```
sails> User.findOne({name: 'joe'}).exec(function(err, user){ fs.writeFileSync('/new/file/path.png', user.avatar); });
```