diff --git a/tildes/tests/test_markdown.py b/tildes/tests/test_markdown.py
index 758f3c9..63c0995 100644
--- a/tildes/tests/test_markdown.py
+++ b/tildes/tests/test_markdown.py
@@ -356,3 +356,12 @@ def test_group_ref_inside_code_ignored():
     processed = convert_markdown_to_safe_html(markdown)
 
     assert "<a" not in processed
+
+
+def test_image_syntax_ignored():
+    """Ensure inline image syntax is treated as a link."""
+    markdown = "An exclamation mark preceding a ![link](url)."
+    processed = convert_markdown_to_safe_html(markdown)
+
+    assert "!<a" in processed
+    assert "img" not in processed
diff --git a/tildes/tildes/lib/markdown.py b/tildes/tildes/lib/markdown.py
index f600351..5b2cca8 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/lib/markdown.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/lib/markdown.py
@@ -105,6 +105,8 @@ BAD_ORDERED_LIST_REGEX = re.compile(
     r"\.\s"  # Followed by a period and a space
 )
 
+STRIP_IMAGE_ELEMENTS_REGEX = re.compile(r'<img src="([^"<>]*?)" alt="([^"<>]*?)" />')
+
 
 @histogram_timer("markdown_processing")
 def convert_markdown_to_safe_html(markdown: str) -> str:
@@ -177,6 +179,9 @@ def postprocess_markdown_html(html: str) -> str:
     # apply syntax highlighting to code blocks
     html = apply_syntax_highlighting(html)
 
+    # replace <img> elements that were generated by `![ ]( )` Markdown syntax
+    html = strip_image_elements(html)
+
     return html
 
 
@@ -223,6 +228,20 @@ def apply_syntax_highlighting(html: str) -> str:
     return html
 
 
+def strip_image_elements(html: str) -> str:
+    """Replace all <img> elements generated from Markdown with <a>.
+
+    The Markdown syntax `![alt text](/url)` creates an image tag. Except for the leading
+    `!`, the syntax is identical to that of links. We can pretend we never parsed it as
+    a Markdown image by replacing all image tags with links.
+
+        <img src="/url" alt="alt text" />
+            ==>
+        !<a href="/url">alt text</a>
+    """
+    return STRIP_IMAGE_ELEMENTS_REGEX.sub(r'!<a href="\1">\2</a>', html)
+
+
 class LinkifyFilter(Filter):
     """html5lib Filter to convert custom text patterns to links.