uploading an image (BLOB) to mysql

In lookig at the log I see
Query error: Invalid utf8 character string: '\x89PNG' - Invalid query: UPDATE `substantiator`.`word` SET image_BLOB = �PNG
and then looking at the SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%'; in mysqlworkbench, I see that the database is set to 'collation_database', 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'. So I think I need to modify the collation for the database to be utf8. But this is RDS so it is not very straightforward.

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks