diff --git a/mod/photos.php b/mod/photos.php
index 65ad9b5d4b..247898ccd3 100644
--- a/mod/photos.php
+++ b/mod/photos.php
@@ -1418,9 +1418,8 @@ function photos_content(App $a)
 			$arr = explode(',', $link_item['tag']);
 			// parse tags and add links
 			$tag_arr = [];
-			foreach ($arr as $t) {
-				array_push($tag_arr, ['name' => BBCode::convert($t),
-					'removeurl' => '/tagrm/'.$link_item['id'] . '/' . bin2hex($t)]);
+			foreach ($arr as $tag) {
+				array_push($tag_arr, ['name' => BBCode::convert($tag), 'removeurl' => '/tagrm/'.$link_item['id'] . '/' . bin2hex($tag)]);
 			}
 			$tags = ['title' => L10n::t('Tags: '), 'tags' => $tag_arr];
 			if ($cmd === 'edit') {
diff --git a/mod/tagrm.php b/mod/tagrm.php
index 8497bc28a6..a5288eaf99 100644
--- a/mod/tagrm.php
+++ b/mod/tagrm.php
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ use Friendica\Core\L10n;
 use Friendica\Core\System;
 use Friendica\Database\DBA;
 use Friendica\Model\Item;
+use Friendica\Model\Term;
 
 function tagrm_post(App $a)
 {
@@ -21,10 +22,8 @@ function tagrm_post(App $a)
 	}
 
 	$tags = [];
-	if (defaults($_POST, 'tag', '')){
-		foreach ($_POST['tag'] as $t){
-			array_push($tags, hex2bin(notags(trim($t))));
-		}
+	foreach (defaults($_POST, 'tag', []) as $tag) {
+		array_push($tags, hex2bin(notags(trim($tag))));
 	}
 
 	$item_id = defaults($_POST,'item', 0);
@@ -52,23 +51,24 @@ function update_tags($item_id, $tags){
 		$a->internalRedirect($_SESSION['photo_return']);
 	}
 
-	$arr = explode(',', $item['tag']);
+	$old_tags = explode(',', $item['tag']);
 
-	foreach ($tags as $t) {
-		foreach ($arr as $i => $x) {
-			if (strcmp($x, $t) == 0) {
-				unset($arr[$i]);
+	foreach ($tags as $new_tag) {
+		foreach ($old_tags as $count => $old_tag) {
+			if (strcmp($old_tag, $new_tag) == 0) {
+				unset($old_tags[$count]);
 				break;
 			}
 		}
 	}
 
-	$tag_str = implode(',',$arr);
-	if(empty($tag_str)){
-		$tag_str = '';
+	$tag_str = implode(',',$old_tags);
+	if(!empty($tag_str)) {
+		Item::update(['tag' => $tag_str], ['id' => $item_id]);
+	}
+	else {
+		Term::deleteByItemId($item_id);
 	}
-
-	Item::update(['tag' => $tag_str], ['id' => $item_id]);
 
 	info(L10n::t('Tag(s) removed') . EOL );
 }
diff --git a/src/Model/Item.php b/src/Model/Item.php
index 3df2429313..77828273bc 100644
--- a/src/Model/Item.php
+++ b/src/Model/Item.php
@@ -896,14 +896,9 @@ class Item extends BaseObject
 			}
 
 			if (!is_null($tags)) {
-				if ($tags) {
-					Term::insertFromTagFieldByItemId($item['id'], $tags);
-					if (!empty($item['tag'])) {
-						DBA::update('item', ['tag' => ''], ['id' => $item['id']]);
-					}
-				}
-				else {
-					Term::deleteAllTags($item['id']);
+				Term::insertFromTagFieldByItemId($item['id'], $tags);
+				if (!empty($item['tag'])) {
+					DBA::update('item', ['tag' => ''], ['id' => $item['id']]);
 				}
 			}
 
diff --git a/src/Model/Term.php b/src/Model/Term.php
index 75cc100703..f62fced709 100644
--- a/src/Model/Term.php
+++ b/src/Model/Term.php
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ class Term
 		$message['tag'] = $tags;
 
 		// Clean up all tags
-		DBA::delete('term', ['otype' => TERM_OBJ_POST, 'oid' => $itemid, 'type' => [TERM_HASHTAG, TERM_MENTION]]);
+		self::deleteByItemId($itemid);
 
 		if ($message['deleted']) {
 			return;
@@ -294,16 +294,16 @@ class Term
 	/**
 	 * Delete all tags from an item
 	 * @param int itemid - choose from which item the tags will be removed
+	 * @param array type - items type. default is [TERM_HASHTAG, TERM_MENTION]
 	 */
-	public static function deleteAllTags($itemid)
+	public static function deleteByItemId($itemid, $type = [TERM_HASHTAG, TERM_MENTION])
 	{
-		$message = Item::selectFirst(['id'], ['id' => $itemid]);
-		if (!DBA::isResult($message)) {
+		if (empty($itemid)) {
 			return;
 		}
 
 		// Clean up all tags
-		DBA::delete('term', ['otype' => TERM_OBJ_POST, 'oid' => $itemid, 'type' => [TERM_HASHTAG, TERM_MENTION]]);
+		DBA::delete('term', ['otype' => TERM_OBJ_POST, 'oid' => $itemid, 'type' => $type]);
 
 	}
 }
diff --git a/view/theme/frio/templates/photo_view.tpl b/view/theme/frio/templates/photo_view.tpl
index 939d9f0e98..7dc2db901e 100644
--- a/view/theme/frio/templates/photo_view.tpl
+++ b/view/theme/frio/templates/photo_view.tpl
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
 			{{foreach $tags.tags as $t}}
 			<span class="category label btn-success sm">
 				<span class="p-category">{{$t.name}}</span>
-				{{if $t.removeurl}} (<a href="{{$t.removeurl}}">x</a>) {{/if}}
+				{{if $t.removeurl}} <a href="{{$t.removeurl}}">(X)</a> {{/if}}
 			</span>
 			{{/foreach}}
 		</div>