A new approach to the use of micelles in the fluorescent sensing of metal cations is proposed and applied to the case of Hg2+. We demonstrate how it is possible to transform a system from an ON–OFF to an OFF–ON sensor by changing the length of the chain used to lipophilise a ligand that resides inside TritonX‐100 micelles together with pyrene as the fluorophore. Three tetrathia‐monoaza macrocyclic ligands have been synthesised with the same ring but functionalised on the nitrogen atom with a methyl (C1‐NS4), an n‐butyl (C4‐NS4) or an n‐dodecyl (C12‐NS4) chain. The three ligands have been fully characterised in water containing TritonX‐100 micelles by means of potentiometric titrations and their apparent protonation and complexation constants with Hg2+ were determined. On the basis of the distribution diagrams obtained, the more lipophilic C12‐NS4 has been developed as an ON–OFF fluorescent sensor for mercury: working at pH<4, in the absence of Hg2+ the ligand is inside the micelles, protonated and non‐quenching, while on addition of mercury the [C12‐NS4Hg]2+ complex forms which remains inside the micelles and is quenching. On the other hand, the ligand of intermediate chain length, C4‐NS4, can be used to obtain an OFF–ON sensor at 7.07.0 the ligand is unprotonated, it stays inside the micelles and is quenching, while addition of Hg2+ in the 7.0–9.5 pH range results in the formation of [C4‐NS4Hg]2+, which is hydrophilic enough to leave the micelles and to be released into the bulk solution where it is no longer capable of quenching pyrene fluorescence. Additional studies on C1‐NS4, C3‐NS4 and C8‐NS4 indicate that the optimal chain length to observe this OFF–ON behaviour is C3–C4.