diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.test.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.test.ts
index ca88122fd..682c9c815 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.test.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.test.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,29 @@ describe("ContainerImage", () => {
       const imageName = new ImageName("registry", "image", "sha256:1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd");
       expect(imageName.string).toBe("registry/image@sha256:1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd");
     });
+
+    it("should not append the `latest` tag to image IDs", () => {
+      const imageName = new ImageName(
+        undefined,
+        "aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f",
+        "latest"
+      );
+      expect(imageName.string).toBe("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f");
+    });
+
+    it("should keep other tags (not `latest`) on image IDs", () => {
+      // Note that the resulting image ID will not be accepted by Docker:
+      //
+      // > "invalid repository name [...], cannot specify 64-byte hexadecimal strings"
+      //
+      // However, not treating tags other than `latests` specially is probably less surprising.
+      const imageName = new ImageName(
+        undefined,
+        "aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f",
+        "1"
+      );
+      expect(imageName.string).toBe("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f:1");
+    });
   });
 
   describe("fromString", () => {
@@ -96,5 +119,26 @@ describe("ContainerImage", () => {
       expect(imageName.image).toBe("image");
       expect(imageName.tag).toBe("sha256:1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd1234abcd");
     });
+
+    it("should work with image being an image ID", () => {
+      const imageName = ImageName.fromString("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f");
+
+      expect(imageName.registry).toBe(undefined);
+      expect(imageName.image).toBe("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f");
+      expect(imageName.tag).toBe("latest");
+    });
+
+    it("should work with image being an image ID and an explicit tag", () => {
+      // Note: Such an ID will not be accepted by docker:
+      //
+      // > "invalid repository name [...], cannot specify 64-byte hexadecimal strings"
+      //
+      // However, parsing it this way is probably least surprising.
+      const imageName = ImageName.fromString("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f:1");
+
+      expect(imageName.registry).toBe(undefined);
+      expect(imageName.image).toBe("aa285b773a2c042056883845aea893a743d358a5d40f61734fa228fde93dae6f");
+      expect(imageName.tag).toBe("1");
+    });
   });
 });
diff --git a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.ts b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.ts
index c7421c6ed..ea10e1a57 100644
--- a/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.ts
+++ b/packages/testcontainers/src/container-runtime/image-name.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 export class ImageName {
   public readonly string: string;
 
+  private static readonly hexRE = /^[0-9a-f]{64}$/i;
+
   constructor(
     public readonly registry: string | undefined,
     public readonly image: string,
@@ -12,6 +14,14 @@ export class ImageName {
       } else {
         this.string = `${this.registry}/${this.image}:${this.tag}`;
       }
+    } else if (this.tag === "latest" && ImageName.hexRE.test(this.image)) {
+      // 64 byte hex string. This refers to an image sha256 directly.
+      // Do not put the tag as the docker does not accept it.
+      // It will fail with:
+      //
+      //    invalid repository name (<image>), cannot specify 64-byte hexadecimal strings.
+      //
+      this.string = this.image;
     } else if (this.tag.startsWith("sha256:")) {
       this.string = `${this.image}@${this.tag}`;
     } else {