diff --git a/data/database.py b/data/database.py
index 00735b49b..dd4a2eb77 100644
--- a/data/database.py
+++ b/data/database.py
@@ -552,6 +552,9 @@ class UserRegion(BaseModel):
   )
 
 
+_ImageProxy = Proxy()
+
+
 class Image(BaseModel):
   # This class is intentionally denormalized. Even though images are supposed
   # to be globally unique we can't treat them as such for permissions and
@@ -574,7 +577,9 @@ class Image(BaseModel):
 
   security_indexed = BooleanField(default=False)
   security_indexed_engine = IntegerField(default=-1)
-  parent_id = IntegerField(index=True, null=True)
+
+  # We use a proxy here instead of 'self' in order to disable the foreign key constraint
+  parent = ForeignKeyField(_ImageProxy, index=True, null=True, related_name='children')
 
   class Meta:
     database = db
@@ -587,6 +592,9 @@ class Image(BaseModel):
     )
 
 
+_ImageProxy.initialize(Image)
+
+
 class RepositoryTag(BaseModel):
   name = CharField()
   image = ForeignKeyField(Image)
diff --git a/data/model/image.py b/data/model/image.py
index d07c56416..943d9f383 100644
--- a/data/model/image.py
+++ b/data/model/image.py
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ def _find_or_link_image(existing_image, repo_obj, username, translations, prefer
                                comment=existing_image.comment,
                                v1_json_metadata=existing_image.v1_json_metadata,
                                aggregate_size=existing_image.aggregate_size,
-                               parent_id=translated_parent_id,
+                               parent=translated_parent_id,
                                v1_checksum=existing_image.v1_checksum)
 
 
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ def set_image_metadata(docker_image_id, namespace_name, repository_name, created
 
     if parent:
       fetched.ancestors = '%s%s/' % (parent.ancestors, parent.id)
-      fetched.parent_id = parent.id
+      fetched.parent = parent
 
     fetched.save()
     return fetched
@@ -429,10 +429,8 @@ def synthesize_v1_image(repo, image_storage, docker_image_id, created_date_str,
       specified metadata.
   """
   ancestors = '/'
-  parent_id = None
   if parent_image is not None:
     ancestors = '{0}{1}/'.format(parent_image.ancestors, parent_image.id)
-    parent_id = parent_image.id
 
   created = None
   if created_date_str is not None:
@@ -444,7 +442,7 @@ def synthesize_v1_image(repo, image_storage, docker_image_id, created_date_str,
 
   return Image.create(docker_image_id=docker_image_id, ancestors=ancestors, comment=comment,
                       command=command, v1_json_metadata=v1_json_metadata, created=created,
-                      storage=image_storage, repository=repo, parent_id=parent_id)
+                      storage=image_storage, repository=repo, parent=parent_image)
 
 
 def ensure_image_locations(*names):