If that is the case, you are getting utf-8 from your database - run that data through Encode. Alternatively, try using iso10646-1 (or utf8 without the hyphen).

Using those fonts might fail since it seems likely that the strings coming from the database don't have the internal UTF8 flag set.

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}