How to associate an image node with taxonomy term?
why don´t you use the taxonomy image module
then simply get the taxonomy id from the node (use node_load(nid) then identify with var_dump how can you refer to the taxonomy..he might be using the CCK or the taxonomy module ) then get the id(s) of the term, load that term with and see it´s image (again use var_dump to know it´s structure)