A system and method for recording magnetic resonance images with reduced relaxation-related artifacts. The system and method improve the conventional methods for acquiring magnetic resonance images of in vivo tissue by augmenting the procedures for eliminating artifacts caused by motion with procedures for eliminating artifacts caused by spin of the magnetic resonance-active nuclei in the specimen of interest. One procedure to eliminate such spin inhomogeneities is to require a delay defined by the time N*T1, where N is a numerical value greater than or equal to 5 and T1 is the characteristic time constant for decay of spins back to the equilibrium longitudinal state. Another procedure uses a value of N less than 5.