diff --git a/pkg/labels/matcher.go b/pkg/labels/matcher.go
index 40ae5f76e..7fa5d947e 100644
--- a/pkg/labels/matcher.go
+++ b/pkg/labels/matcher.go
@@ -59,8 +59,7 @@ func NewMatcher(t MatchType, n, v string) (*Matcher, error) {
 		Value: v,
 	}
 	if t == MatchRegexp || t == MatchNotRegexp {
-		m.Value = "^(?:" + v + ")$"
-		re, err := regexp.Compile(m.Value)
+		re, err := regexp.Compile("^(?:" + v + ")$")
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}
diff --git a/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go b/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
index 966dfd55e..33572c93f 100644
--- a/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
+++ b/storage/tsdb/tsdb.go
@@ -233,14 +233,14 @@ func convertMatcher(m *labels.Matcher) tsdbLabels.Matcher {
 		return tsdbLabels.Not(tsdbLabels.NewEqualMatcher(m.Name, m.Value))
 
 	case labels.MatchRegexp:
-		res, err := tsdbLabels.NewRegexpMatcher(m.Name, m.Value)
+		res, err := tsdbLabels.NewRegexpMatcher(m.Name, "^(?:"+m.Value+")$")
 		if err != nil {
 			panic(err)
 		}
 		return res
 
 	case labels.MatchNotRegexp:
-		res, err := tsdbLabels.NewRegexpMatcher(m.Name, m.Value)
+		res, err := tsdbLabels.NewRegexpMatcher(m.Name, "^(?:"+m.Value+")$")
 		if err != nil {
 			panic(err)
 		}