diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/down.sql b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/down.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..311e762f7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/down.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS tags;
diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/up.sql b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/up.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..166dbd73c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065552-0000_create_tags/up.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+CREATE TABLE tags (
+  -- Not used for anything except replication.
+  id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
+
+  -- Effective "primary key".
+  token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The display value of the tag, as entered by the creator.
+  tag_value VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- Lowercased copy of `tag_value` for case-insensitive uniqueness and lookup.
+  -- (The table collation is utf8mb4_bin, so the code must lowercase this.)
+  tag_value_lowercase VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The user that created the tag.
+  creator_user_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- Rollup statistic for usage counts.
+  use_count INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+
+  -- ========== TIMESTAMPS ==========
+
+  created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+  updated_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+  maybe_deleted_at TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT NULL,
+
+  -- INDICES --
+  PRIMARY KEY (id),
+  UNIQUE KEY (token),
+  UNIQUE KEY (tag_value_lowercase, creator_user_token),
+
+  KEY index_creator_user_token (creator_user_token)
+
+) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_bin;
diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/down.sql b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/down.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9084b732fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/down.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS media_file_tags;
diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/up.sql b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/up.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c3ef35fb8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations/2026-07-10-065553-0000_create_media_file_tags/up.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+CREATE TABLE media_file_tags (
+  -- Not used for anything except replication.
+  id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
+
+  -- The media file being tagged.
+  media_file_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The tag applied to the media file.
+  tag_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The user that owns this tagging.
+  user_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- ========== TIMESTAMPS ==========
+
+  created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+
+  -- INDICES --
+  PRIMARY KEY (id),
+  UNIQUE KEY (media_file_token, tag_token, user_token),
+
+  KEY index_media_file_token_and_user_token (media_file_token, user_token),
+  KEY index_tag_token_and_user_token (tag_token, user_token),
+  KEY index_media_file_token (media_file_token),
+  KEY index_tag_token (tag_token),
+  KEY index_user_token (user_token)
+
+) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_bin;
diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/media_file_tags.sql b/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/media_file_tags.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..69e145ba93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/media_file_tags.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+-- NB: This is a manually squashed view of all the CREATE and ALTER statements,
+-- with comments attached to the fields for centralized documentation.
+
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+-- N:M mapping between `media_files` and `tags`, scoped to the owning user.
+CREATE TABLE media_file_tags (
+  -- Not used for anything except replication.
+  id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
+
+  -- The media file being tagged.
+  media_file_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The tag applied to the media file.
+  tag_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The user that owns this tagging.
+  user_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- ========== TIMESTAMPS ==========
+
+  created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+
+  -- INDICES --
+  PRIMARY KEY (id),
+  UNIQUE KEY (media_file_token, tag_token, user_token),
+
+  KEY index_media_file_token_and_user_token (media_file_token, user_token),
+  KEY index_tag_token_and_user_token (tag_token, user_token),
+  KEY index_media_file_token (media_file_token),
+  KEY index_tag_token (tag_token),
+  KEY index_user_token (user_token)
+
+) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_bin;
diff --git a/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/tags.sql b/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/tags.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ba0836b869
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_database/sql/migrations_squashed/tags.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+-- NB: This is a manually squashed view of all the CREATE and ALTER statements,
+-- with comments attached to the fields for centralized documentation.
+
+-- noinspection SqlDialectInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlNoDataSourceInspectionForFile
+-- noinspection SqlResolveForFile
+
+-- User-created tags for media files. Tags are scoped per-user: two users can
+-- each have their own tag with the same value. Applied to media files via the
+-- `media_file_tags` join table.
+CREATE TABLE tags (
+  -- Not used for anything except replication.
+  id BIGINT(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
+
+  -- Effective "primary key".
+  token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The display value of the tag, as entered by the creator.
+  tag_value VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- Lowercased copy of `tag_value` for case-insensitive uniqueness and lookup.
+  -- (The table collation is utf8mb4_bin, so the code must lowercase this.)
+  tag_value_lowercase VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- The user that created the tag.
+  creator_user_token VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
+
+  -- Rollup statistic for usage counts.
+  use_count INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
+
+  -- ========== TIMESTAMPS ==========
+
+  created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+  updated_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
+  maybe_deleted_at TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT NULL,
+
+  -- INDICES --
+  PRIMARY KEY (id),
+  UNIQUE KEY (token),
+  UNIQUE KEY (tag_value_lowercase, creator_user_token),
+
+  KEY index_creator_user_token (creator_user_token)
+
+) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_bin;