diff --git a/lib/datadog/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer.rb b/lib/datadog/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer.rb
index 95860df..4d66bbf 100644
--- a/lib/datadog/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer.rb
+++ b/lib/datadog/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer.rb
@@ -59,10 +59,10 @@ def to_tags_list(tags)
           case tags
           when Hash
             tags.map do |name, value|
-              if value
-                escape_tag_content("#{name}:#{value}")
-              else
+              if value.nil?
                 escape_tag_content(name)
+              else
+                escape_tag_content("#{name}:#{value}")
               end
             end
           when Array
diff --git a/spec/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer_spec.rb b/spec/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer_spec.rb
index d45be5f..a6c0e8d 100644
--- a/spec/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/statsd/serialization/tag_serializer_spec.rb
@@ -139,6 +139,20 @@
         expect(subject.format([tag])).to eq 'node:storage'
       end
 
+      it 'ignores hash tag values which are not present when called with to_s' do
+        message_tags_hash = {
+          request: [],
+          missing: nil,
+          'another' => {},
+          blank: '',
+          :yet_another => false,
+          'results in blank': double('some tag', to_s: ''),
+          'results in nil': double('some tag', to_s: nil),
+        }
+
+        expect(subject.format(message_tags_hash)).to eq 'request:[],another:{},yet_another:false'
+      end
+
       it 'formats frozen tags correctly' do
         expect(subject.format(['name:foobarfoo'.freeze])).to eq 'name:foobarfoo'
       end