diff --git a/scrape.py b/scrape.py
index 8390000..b041a67 100644
--- a/scrape.py
+++ b/scrape.py
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ db = MySQLdb.connect(
 	host = cfg['db_host'],
 	user=cfg['db_user'],
 	passwd=cfg['db_pass'],
-	db=cfg['db_name']
+	db=cfg['db_name'],
+	use_unicode=True,
+	charset="utf8mb4"
 )
 
 cursor = db.cursor()
diff --git a/service.py b/service.py
index 225ac01..25964d1 100755
--- a/service.py
+++ b/service.py
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@ db = MySQLdb.connect(
 	host = cfg['db_host'],
 	user=cfg['db_user'],
 	passwd=cfg['db_pass'],
-	db=cfg['db_name']
+	db=cfg['db_name'],
+	use_unicode=True,
+	charset="utf8mb4"
 )
 
 print("Cleaning up database")