diff --git a/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/edit.js b/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/edit.js
index 8ff438dc20abef..11a281a44a76d7 100644
--- a/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/edit.js
+++ b/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/edit.js
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import {
 	TextControl,
 	TextareaControl,
 	ToolbarButton,
-	Tooltip,
 	ToolbarGroup,
 } from '@wordpress/components';
 import { displayShortcut, isKeyboardEvent } from '@wordpress/keycodes';
@@ -490,10 +489,6 @@ export default function NavigationLinkEdit( {
 	const placeholderText = `(${
 		isInvalid ? __( 'Invalid' ) : __( 'Draft' )
 	})`;
-	const tooltipText =
-		isInvalid || isDraft
-			? __( 'This item has been deleted, or is a draft' )
-			: __( 'This item is missing a link' );
 
 	return (
 		<>
@@ -533,9 +528,7 @@ export default function NavigationLinkEdit( {
 					{ /* eslint-enable */ }
 					{ ! url ? (
 						<div className="wp-block-navigation-link__placeholder-text">
-							<Tooltip text={ tooltipText }>
-								<span>{ missingText }</span>
-							</Tooltip>
+							<span>{ missingText }</span>
 						</div>
 					) : (
 						<>
@@ -578,27 +571,30 @@ export default function NavigationLinkEdit( {
 							{ ( isInvalid ||
 								isDraft ||
 								isLabelFieldFocused ) && (
-								<div className="wp-block-navigation-link__placeholder-text wp-block-navigation-link__label">
-									<Tooltip text={ tooltipText }>
-										<span
-											aria-label={ __(
-												'Navigation link text'
-											) }
-										>
-											{
-												// Some attributes are stored in an escaped form. It's a legacy issue.
-												// Ideally they would be stored in a raw, unescaped form.
-												// Unescape is used here to "recover" the escaped characters
-												// so they display without encoding.
-												// See `updateAttributes` for more details.
-												`${ decodeEntities( label ) } ${
-													isInvalid || isDraft
-														? placeholderText
-														: ''
-												}`.trim()
-											}
-										</span>
-									</Tooltip>
+								<div
+									className={ clsx(
+										'wp-block-navigation-link__placeholder-text',
+										'wp-block-navigation-link__label',
+										{
+											'is-invalid': isInvalid,
+											'is-draft': isDraft,
+										}
+									) }
+								>
+									<span>
+										{
+											// Some attributes are stored in an escaped form. It's a legacy issue.
+											// Ideally they would be stored in a raw, unescaped form.
+											// Unescape is used here to "recover" the escaped characters
+											// so they display without encoding.
+											// See `updateAttributes` for more details.
+											`${ decodeEntities( label ) } ${
+												isInvalid || isDraft
+													? placeholderText
+													: ''
+											}`.trim()
+										}
+									</span>
 								</div>
 							) }
 						</>
diff --git a/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/editor.scss b/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/editor.scss
index 84cd6f6d4ee363..c48af79385c47f 100644
--- a/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/editor.scss
+++ b/packages/block-library/src/navigation-link/editor.scss
@@ -80,24 +80,33 @@
 	background-image: none !important;
 
 	// Draw a wavy underline.
-	.wp-block-navigation-link__placeholder-text span {
-		$blur: 10%;
-		$width: 6%;
-		$stop1: 30%;
-		$stop2: 64%;
-
-		--wp-underline-color: var(--wp-admin-theme-color);
-
-		background-image:
-			linear-gradient(45deg, transparent ($stop1 - $blur), var(--wp-underline-color) $stop1, var(--wp-underline-color) ($stop1 + $width), transparent ($stop1 + $width + $blur)),
-			linear-gradient(135deg, transparent ($stop2 - $blur), var(--wp-underline-color) $stop2, var(--wp-underline-color) ($stop2 + $width), transparent ($stop2 + $width + $blur));
-		background-position: 0 100%;
-		background-size: 6px 3px;
-		background-repeat: repeat-x;
-
-		// Since applied to a span, it doesn't change the footprint of the item,
-		// but it does vertically shift the underline to better align.
-		padding-bottom: 0.1em;
+	.wp-block-navigation-link__placeholder-text {
+		span {
+			$blur: 10%;
+			$width: 6%;
+			$stop1: 30%;
+			$stop2: 64%;
+
+			--wp-underline-color: var(--wp-admin-theme-color);
+
+			background-image:
+				linear-gradient(45deg, transparent ($stop1 - $blur), var(--wp-underline-color) $stop1, var(--wp-underline-color) ($stop1 + $width), transparent ($stop1 + $width + $blur)),
+				linear-gradient(135deg, transparent ($stop2 - $blur), var(--wp-underline-color) $stop2, var(--wp-underline-color) ($stop2 + $width), transparent ($stop2 + $width + $blur));
+			background-position: 0 100%;
+			background-size: 6px 3px;
+			background-repeat: repeat-x;
+
+			// Since applied to a span, it doesn't change the footprint of the item,
+			// but it does vertically shift the underline to better align.
+			padding-bottom: 0.1em;
+		}
+
+		&.is-invalid,
+		&.is-draft {
+			span {
+				--wp-underline-color: var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-red);
+			}
+		}
 	}
 
 	// This needs extra specificity.