PHP & MySQL - HTMLpurifier and special characters display problem

When I enter the special character ☣ into my mysql database it turns into ☣ when stored in the database and when I try displaying the results from the database i开发者_Python百科t is displayed as ☣ when it should be displayed as ☣ how can I fix this problem?

---

Run the following command before submitting your commands.

SET NAMES utf8;

---

PHP docs says using "SET NAMES" isn't recommended. Rather use mysql_set_charset().