<p>According to the adobe flex docs: <a href="http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=controls_15.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=controls_15.html</a></p>

<p>Using an image multiple times</p>

<p>You can use the same image multiple times in your application by using the normal image import syntax each time. Flex only loads the image once, and then references the loaded image as many times as necessary.</p>

<p>However, in testing we have found that if you request the same image (same url, etc.) in IE flash 9/10 a new http request will not be issued, but with Firefox, Safari (PC and MAC) a new request is always issued.</p>

<p>I want to prevent the image from being pulled from the server each time I try and use it anyone have any idea why this is working only in IE?</p>

The best way to load an image a single time and then reuse that image multiple times in a flex application is to embed the image and tie it to a class representation, then just reference that class from then on.
Example:
```
```
[Embed(source="myImage.jpg")]
[Bindable]
public var myImageClass:Class;
```
```
HTH