diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d0f39b695eb..874dbd87be3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -143,6 +143,7 @@ With this release the systemd configuration files for InfluxDB will use the syst
 - [#7125](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7125): Ensure gzip writer is closed in influx_inspect export
 - [#7127](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7127): Concurrent series limit
 - [#7119](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/7119): Fix CREATE DATABASE when dealing with default values.
+- [#7177](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/7177): Fix base64 encoding issue with /debug/vars tags.
 
 ## v0.13.0 [2016-05-12]
 
diff --git a/models/points.go b/models/points.go
index b9f76d4464b..ba014890a1c 100644
--- a/models/points.go
+++ b/models/points.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package models // import "github.com/influxdata/influxdb/models"
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/binary"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"hash/fnv"
@@ -1396,6 +1397,22 @@ type Tag struct {
 	Value []byte
 }
 
+// MarshalJSON implements the json.Marshaler interface.
+//
+// When Tags are marshalled to a JSON representation it is helpful if they're
+// represented as readable strings, rather than the base64 encoded strings which
+// are emitted when encoding a []byte.
+func (t Tag) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
+	var out = struct {
+		Key   string `json:"key"`
+		Value string `json:"value"`
+	}{
+		Key:   string(t.Key),
+		Value: string(t.Value),
+	}
+	return json.Marshal(out)
+}
+
 // Tags represents a sorted list of tags.
 type Tags []Tag