Slow mysql query full text search tag database
as I understand work of FT - it must be prepared in advance, so command

WHERE MATCH (t.tags) AGAINST ('+justin* +backgrounds*' IN BOOLEAN MODE)


against derived table:

(SELECT image_to_tag.image_id,
             GROUP_CONCAT(image_tag.`name`) AS tags
        FROM image_to_tag
        INNER JOIN image_tag
        ON (image_tag.id = image_to_tag.image_tag_id)
    GROUP BY image_to_tag.image_id) t


must not work - just because when index created no this table present

because query work (not return error from Your description) - MySQL ignore this, but need test with full table structure

also, JOIN with derived table - do not want to use index