diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/storage/base.py b/django/contrib/messages/storage/base.py
index f682a9bbc3..43dd3dbdd2 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/storage/base.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/storage/base.py
@@ -40,18 +40,20 @@ class Message(object):
         return force_text(self.message)
 
     def _get_tags(self):
-        label_tag = force_text(LEVEL_TAGS.get(self.level, ''),
-                                  strings_only=True)
         extra_tags = force_text(self.extra_tags, strings_only=True)
-        if extra_tags and label_tag:
-            return ' '.join([extra_tags, label_tag])
+        if extra_tags and self.level_tag:
+            return ' '.join([extra_tags, self.level_tag])
         elif extra_tags:
             return extra_tags
-        elif label_tag:
-            return label_tag
+        elif self.level_tag:
+            return self.level_tag
         return ''
     tags = property(_get_tags)
 
+    @property
+    def level_tag(self):
+        return force_text(LEVEL_TAGS.get(self.level, ''), strings_only=True)
+
 
 class BaseStorage(object):
     """
diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
index cae2e09412..1b1a9c0048 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
@@ -361,6 +361,15 @@ class BaseTests(object):
                          ['info', '', 'extra-tag debug', 'warning', 'error',
                           'success'])
 
+    def test_level_tag(self):
+        storage = self.get_storage()
+        storage.level = 0
+        add_level_messages(storage)
+        tags = [msg.level_tag for msg in storage]
+        self.assertEqual(tags,
+                         ['info', '', 'debug', 'warning', 'error',
+                          'success'])
+
     @override_settings_tags(MESSAGE_TAGS={
         constants.INFO: 'info',
         constants.DEBUG: '',
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
index caf51d26cc..690b73d195 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
@@ -212,6 +212,32 @@ is a mapping of the message level names to their numeric value::
     </ul>
     {% endif %}
 
+The ``Message`` class
+---------------------
+
+.. class:: storage.base.Message
+
+    When you loop over the list of messages in a template, what you get are
+    instances of the ``Message`` class. It's quite a simple object, with only a
+    few attributes:
+
+    * ``message``: The actual text of the message.
+
+    * ``level``: An integer describing the type of the message (see the
+      `message levels`_ section above).
+
+    * ``tags``: A string combining all the message's tags (``extra_tags`` and
+      ``level_tag``) separated by spaces.
+
+    * ``extra_tags``: A string containing custom tags for this message,
+      separated by spaces. It's empty by default.
+
+    .. versionadded:: 1.7
+
+    * ``level_tag``: The string representation of the level. By default, it's
+      the lowercase version of the name of the associated constant, but this
+      can be changed if you need by using the :setting:`MESSAGE_TAGS` setting.
+
 Creating custom message levels
 ------------------------------
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.7.txt b/docs/releases/1.7.txt
index d703f44e4b..7b527ce7fb 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.7.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.7.txt
@@ -221,6 +221,10 @@ Minor features
 * The :ref:`messages context processor <message-displaying>` now adds a
   dictionary of default levels under the name ``DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS``.
 
+* :class:`~django.contrib.messages.storage.base.Message` objects now have a
+  ``level_tag`` attribute that contains the string representation of the
+  message level.
+
 :mod:`django.contrib.redirects`
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^