[@LegendBegins]
Just a quick play around to see how a few things worked out. My suggestion for placing an image within the text box area just looked bad. Some other designs may work if it was a bit more specific with borders and possible text formatting [i](ie: Fantasy RPs could have their usernames in a stylish font, eg: [url=http://www.dafont.com/img/preview/d/r/dragon_is_coming0.png][Link][/url], however getting that to work on computers without font files may be an issue)[/i]

[quote]I was considering the top and the sides (perhaps the bottom), and if someone doesn't want to see them, they can disable it.[/quote]
As a quick throw together, These don't look too bad. A concern we would have to address would be the text that happens to be light and where it would be positioned above certain images. With some images possibly containing varying colours and the requirement for a few different designs to suit the GM's vision, I'm guessing readability of would be high on the list. It's mostly with the lighter shades, but it will depend on the image. 

[hider=Images x3]Anime Street
[img]http://i.imgur.com/iFv0qKs.png[/img]

Fantasy Landscape
[img]http://i.imgur.com/hTFGZXh.png[/img]

Neon Future City
[img]http://i.imgur.com/5NUc1E5.png[/img]
[/hider]