diff --git a/rslib/src/search/parser.rs b/rslib/src/search/parser.rs
index cbdba3d9f..5928bf486 100644
--- a/rslib/src/search/parser.rs
+++ b/rslib/src/search/parser.rs
@@ -392,6 +392,11 @@ fn parse_tag(s: &str) -> ParseResult<'_, SearchNode> {
             tag: unescape_quotes(re),
             mode: FieldSearchMode::Regex,
         }
+    } else if let Some(nc) = s.strip_prefix("nc:") {
+        SearchNode::Tag {
+            tag: unescape(nc)?,
+            mode: FieldSearchMode::NoCombining,
+        }
     } else {
         SearchNode::Tag {
             tag: unescape(s)?,
diff --git a/rslib/src/search/sqlwriter.rs b/rslib/src/search/sqlwriter.rs
index 95249276c..f6237d6fd 100644
--- a/rslib/src/search/sqlwriter.rs
+++ b/rslib/src/search/sqlwriter.rs
@@ -311,8 +311,19 @@ impl SqlWriter<'_> {
                 }
                 s if s.contains(' ') => write!(self.sql, "false").unwrap(),
                 text => {
-                    write!(self.sql, "n.tags regexp ?").unwrap();
-                    let re = &to_custom_re(text, r"\S");
+                    let text = if mode == FieldSearchMode::Normal {
+                        write!(self.sql, "n.tags regexp ?").unwrap();
+                        Cow::from(text)
+                    } else {
+                        write!(
+                            self.sql,
+                            "coalesce(process_text(n.tags, {}), n.tags) regexp ?",
+                            ProcessTextFlags::NoCombining.bits()
+                        )
+                        .unwrap();
+                        without_combining(text)
+                    };
+                    let re = &to_custom_re(&text, r"\S");
                     self.args.push(format!("(?i).* {re}(::| ).*"));
                 }
             }