Found an article titled "MYSQL WITH NOLOCK"
https://web.archive.org/web/20100814144042/http://sqldba.org/articles/22-mysql-with-nolock.aspx
in MS SQL Server you would do the following:
SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME WITH (nolock)
and the MYSQL equivalent is
SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED ;
SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME ;
SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ ;
EDIT
Michael Mior suggested the following (from the comments)
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED ;
SELECT * FROM TABLE_NAME ;
COMMIT ;