diff --git a/pkg/encoders/event/event_test.go b/pkg/encoders/event/event_test.go
index 5d2db20..3ad2503 100644
--- a/pkg/encoders/event/event_test.go
+++ b/pkg/encoders/event/event_test.go
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ func TestMarshalJSONUnmarshalJSON(t *testing.T) {
 		// b, err := ev.MarshalJSON()
 		var err error
 		var b []byte
-		if b, err = json.Marshal(ev); chk.E(err) {
+		if b, err = ev.MarshalJSON(); chk.E(err) {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 		var bc []byte
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ func TestMarshalJSONUnmarshalJSON(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 		var b2 []byte
-		if b2, err = json.Marshal(ev2); err != nil {
+		if b2, err = ev2.MarshalJSON(); err != nil {
 			t.Fatal(err)
 		}
 		if !utils.FastEqual(bc, b2) {
diff --git a/pkg/encoders/tag/tag.go b/pkg/encoders/tag/tag.go
index e946fb6..064392d 100644
--- a/pkg/encoders/tag/tag.go
+++ b/pkg/encoders/tag/tag.go
@@ -45,6 +45,16 @@ func (t *T) Marshal(dst []byte) (b []byte) {
 	return dst
 }
 
+// MarshalJSON encodes a tag.T as standard minified JSON array of strings.
+//
+// Warning: this will mangle the output if the tag fields contain <, > or &
+// characters. do not use json.Marshal in the hopes of rendering tags verbatim
+// in an event as you will have a bad time.
+func (t *T) MarshalJSON() (b []byte, err error) {
+	b = t.Marshal(nil)
+	return
+}
+
 // Unmarshal decodes a standard minified JSON array of strings to a tags.T.
 //
 // Call bufpool.PutBytes(b) to return the buffer to the bufpool after use.
@@ -72,3 +82,8 @@ func (t *T) Unmarshal(b []byte) (r []byte, err error) {
 	}
 	return
 }
+
+func (t *T) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) (err error) {
+	_, err = t.Unmarshal(b)
+	return
+}
diff --git a/pkg/protocol/relayinfo/types.go b/pkg/protocol/relayinfo/types.go
index a50991b..0670602 100644
--- a/pkg/protocol/relayinfo/types.go
+++ b/pkg/protocol/relayinfo/types.go
@@ -291,6 +291,8 @@ func NewInfo(inf *T) (info *T) {
 func (ri *T) Clone() (r2 *T, err error) {
 	r2 = new(T)
 	var b []byte
+	// beware, this will escape <, > and & to unicode escapes but that should be
+	// ok since this data is not signed in events until after it is marshaled.
 	if b, err = json.Marshal(ri); chk.E(err) {
 		return
 	}
@@ -330,6 +332,8 @@ func (ri *T) Save(filename string) (err error) {
 		return
 	}
 	var b []byte
+	// beware, this will escape <, > and & to unicode escapes but that should be
+	// ok since this data is not signed in events until after it is marshaled.
 	if b, err = json.MarshalIndent(ri, "", "    "); chk.E(err) {
 		return
 	}