Umm, yes... In the contacts list, besides the name you can either see the initial(s) or an avatar.

If you go to: Settings > Applications > Contacts > Prefer avatars from - you can either choose "No preference" or google, skype, etc.

Well, my preference would be: "No avatar" which you will notice doesn't exist.

However, this being a smart peoples forum I figured someone might know how to force this...