HTML markup won't work [in SO][1].. testing it here.

<!-- language: lang-html -->

    <a title="jhddj" rel="relImageStatusUpdate" href="<%= format_status_image_url(row["UserID"],row["USERSTATUS_ID"]) %>" 
    id="ahrefStatusImage"> 
    <img alt="" 
    src="<%= format_status_thumbnailimage_url(row["UserID"],row["USERSTATUS_ID"]) %>"/></a>

Trying pure HTML without the ASP.NET stuff:

<!-- language: lang-html -->

    <a title="jhddj" rel="relImageStatusUpdate" href="#" id="ahrefStatusImage"> 
    <img alt="" src="myimage.gif"/></a>


  [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6559957/jquery-colorbox-open-single-image