you must set charset in first connect with mysql by this query:
SET CHARACTER SET utf8
for example in mysqli functions
$MySQL_Handle = mysqli_connect(HOSTNAME,DATABASE_USERNAME,DATABASE_PASSWORD,DATABASE_NAME)
or die ( mysqli_error($MySQL_Handle) );
$sSQL= 'SET CHARACTER SET utf8';
mysqli_query($MySQL_Handle,$sSQL)
or die ('Can\'t charset in DataBase');
and PDO sample :
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=' . $DB_NAME, $DB_USER,
$DB_PASS, array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES 'UTF8'"));
$dbh->exec("SET CHARACTER SET UTF8");
this action need before insert and before select.