diff --git a/TODO.txt b/TODO.txt
index 99d24f4..d151325 100644
--- a/TODO.txt
+++ b/TODO.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 Signature
 =========
 - Implement equality interface
-- Return unicode for the email
-- Implement interface to access the name/email as bytes
 - In Repository's create_commit/create_tag check signatures encoding is right
diff --git a/pygit2.c b/pygit2.c
index 874e667..cda16b6 100644
--- a/pygit2.c
+++ b/pygit2.c
@@ -44,7 +44,19 @@
   #define PyString_Size PyBytes_Size
 #endif
 
+/* Utilities */
+static PyObject *
+to_str(const char *value, const char *encoding, const char *errors)
+{
+    if (encoding == NULL)
+        encoding = "utf-8";
+    return PyUnicode_Decode(value, strlen(value), encoding, errors);
+}
 
+#define to_bytes(value) PyString_FromString(value)
+
+
+/* Python objects */
 typedef struct {
     PyObject_HEAD
     git_repository *repo;
@@ -358,15 +370,11 @@ py_str_to_c_str(PyObject *value, const char *encoding)
     return NULL;
 }
 
-#define c_str_to_py_str(c_str) \
-        PyUnicode_DecodeUTF8(c_str, strlen(c_str), "strict")
-
 #define py_path_to_c_str(py_path) \
         py_str_to_c_str(py_path, Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding)
 
 #define c_str_to_py_path(c_str) \
-        PyUnicode_Decode(c_str, strlen(c_str), \
-                         Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding, "strict")
+        to_str(c_str, Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding, "strict")
 
 
 static int
@@ -1136,9 +1144,7 @@ Commit_get_message(Commit *commit)
 
     message = git_commit_message(commit->commit);
     encoding = git_commit_message_encoding(commit->commit);
-    if (encoding == NULL)
-        encoding = "utf-8";
-    return PyUnicode_Decode(message, strlen(message), encoding, "strict");
+    return to_str(message, encoding, "strict");
 }
 
 static PyObject *
@@ -1676,7 +1682,7 @@ Tag_get_name(Tag *self)
     name = git_tag_name(self->tag);
     if (!name)
         Py_RETURN_NONE;
-    return c_str_to_py_str(name);
+    return to_str(name, "utf-8", "strict");
 }
 
 static PyObject *
@@ -1696,7 +1702,7 @@ Tag_get_message(Tag *self)
     message = git_tag_message(self->tag);
     if (!message)
         Py_RETURN_NONE;
-    return c_str_to_py_str(message);
+    return to_str(message, "utf-8", "strict");
 }
 
 static PyGetSetDef Tag_getseters[] = {
@@ -2645,24 +2651,39 @@ Signature_dealloc(Signature *self)
 }
 
 static PyObject *
-Signature_get_name(Signature *self)
+Signature_get_encoding(Signature *self)
 {
     const char *encoding;
-    git_object *object;
 
     encoding = self->encoding;
     if (encoding == NULL)
         encoding = "utf-8";
 
-    return PyUnicode_Decode(self->signature->name,
-                            strlen(self->signature->name),
-                            encoding, "strict");
+    return PyUnicode_DecodeASCII(encoding, strlen(encoding), "strict");
+}
+
+static PyObject *
+Signature_get_raw_name(Signature *self)
+{
+    return to_bytes(self->signature->name);
+}
+
+static PyObject *
+Signature_get_raw_email(Signature *self)
+{
+    return to_bytes(self->signature->email);
+}
+
+static PyObject *
+Signature_get_name(Signature *self)
+{
+    return to_str(self->signature->name, self->encoding, "strict");
 }
 
 static PyObject *
 Signature_get_email(Signature *self)
 {
-    return PyString_FromString(self->signature->email);
+    return to_str(self->signature->email, self->encoding, "strict");
 }
 
 static PyObject *
@@ -2678,6 +2699,9 @@ Signature_get_offset(Signature *self)
 }
 
 static PyGetSetDef Signature_getseters[] = {
+    {"_encoding", (getter)Signature_get_encoding, NULL, "encoding", NULL},
+    {"_name", (getter)Signature_get_raw_name, NULL, "Name (bytes)", NULL},
+    {"_email", (getter)Signature_get_raw_email, NULL, "Email (bytes)", NULL},
     {"name", (getter)Signature_get_name, NULL, "Name", NULL},
     {"email", (getter)Signature_get_email, NULL, "Email", NULL},
     {"time", (getter)Signature_get_time, NULL, "Time", NULL},
diff --git a/test/__init__.py b/test/__init__.py
index 2379757..1864663 100644
--- a/test/__init__.py
+++ b/test/__init__.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ import unittest
 
 
 names = ['blob', 'commit', 'index', 'refs', 'repository', 'revwalk', 'tag',
-         'tree', 'status']
+         'tree', 'signature', 'status']
 def test_suite():
     modules = ['test.test_%s' % n for n in names]
     return unittest.defaultTestLoader.loadTestsFromNames(modules)
diff --git a/test/test_signature.py b/test/test_signature.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cebbf1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_signature.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
+#
+# Copyright 2011 J. David Ibáñez
+#
+# This file is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2,
+# as published by the Free Software Foundation.
+#
+# In addition to the permissions in the GNU General Public License,
+# the authors give you unlimited permission to link the compiled
+# version of this file into combinations with other programs,
+# and to distribute those combinations without any restriction
+# coming from the use of this file.  (The General Public License
+# restrictions do apply in other respects; for example, they cover
+# modification of the file, and distribution when not linked into
+# a combined executable.)
+#
+# This file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+# General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
+# the Free Software Foundation, 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
+# Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
+
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+import unittest
+
+from pygit2 import Signature
+from .utils import NoRepoTestCase
+
+
+__author__ = 'jdavid.ibp@gmail.com (J. David Ibáñez)'
+
+
+
+class SignatureTest(NoRepoTestCase):
+
+    def test_default(self):
+        signature = Signature('Foo Ibáñez', 'foo@example.com', 1322174594, 60)
+        encoding = signature._encoding
+        self.assertEqual(signature.name, signature._name.decode(encoding))
+        self.assertEqual(signature.name.encode(encoding), signature._name)
+
+    def test_latin1(self):
+        encoding = 'iso-8859-1'
+        signature = Signature('Foo Ibáñez', 'foo@example.com', 1322174594, 60,
+                              encoding)
+        self.assertEqual(signature.name, signature._name.decode(encoding))
+        self.assertEqual(signature.name.encode(encoding), signature._name)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    unittest.main()