diff --git a/glance/quota/__init__.py b/glance/quota/__init__.py
index 4560307cd0..32ba9837a1 100644
--- a/glance/quota/__init__.py
+++ b/glance/quota/__init__.py
@@ -165,14 +165,15 @@ class QuotaImageTagsProxy(object):
         return self.tags.__len__(*args, **kwargs)
 
     def __getattr__(self, name):
-        # Use TypeError here, not AttributeError, as the latter is how we
-        # know a tag is not present. TypeError says "this object is not
-        # what it claims to be".
-        try:
-            tags = self.__getattribute__('tags')
-        except AttributeError:
-            raise TypeError('QuotaImageTagsProxy has no tags.')
-        return getattr(tags, name)
+        # Protect against deepcopy, which calls getattr. __getattr__
+        # is only called when an attribute is not "normal", so when
+        # self.tags is called, this is not.
+        if name == 'tags':
+            try:
+                return self.__getattribute__('tags')
+            except AttributeError:
+                return None
+        return getattr(self.tags, name)
 
 
 class ImageMemberFactoryProxy(glance.domain.proxy.ImageMembershipFactory):
diff --git a/glance/tests/unit/test_quota.py b/glance/tests/unit/test_quota.py
index fff5b1daa7..51d0295e10 100644
--- a/glance/tests/unit/test_quota.py
+++ b/glance/tests/unit/test_quota.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
 #    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 #    under the License.
+import copy
 import uuid
 
 import mock
@@ -596,15 +597,24 @@ class TestQuotaImageTagsProxy(test_utils.BaseTestCase):
             items.remove(item)
         self.assertEqual(0, len(items))
 
-    def test_tags_attr_exception(self):
+    def test_tags_attr_no_loop(self):
         proxy = glance.quota.QuotaImageTagsProxy(None)
-        self.assertRaises(AttributeError, lambda: proxy.foo)
+        self.assertEqual(set([]), proxy.tags)
 
-        # Remove tags to cause the object to be broken. If tags
-        # is not there and we weren't raising TypeError, we'd
-        # get an infinite loop when calling 'proxy.foo'.
+    def test_tags_deepcopy(self):
+        proxy = glance.quota.QuotaImageTagsProxy(set(['a', 'b']))
+        proxy_copy = copy.deepcopy(proxy)
+        self.assertEqual(set(['a', 'b']), proxy_copy.tags)
+        self.assertIn('a', proxy_copy)
+        # remove is a found via __getattr__
+        proxy_copy.remove('a')
+        self.assertNotIn('a', proxy_copy)
+
+    def test_tags_delete(self):
+        proxy = glance.quota.QuotaImageTagsProxy(set(['a', 'b']))
+        self.assertEqual(set(['a', 'b']), proxy.tags)
         del proxy.tags
-        self.assertRaises(TypeError, lambda: proxy.foo)
+        self.assertIsNone(proxy.tags)
 
 
 class TestImageMemberQuotas(test_utils.BaseTestCase):