diff --git a/rest_framework/fields.py b/rest_framework/fields.py
index 3ca7d682e..2e6db8e8b 100644
--- a/rest_framework/fields.py
+++ b/rest_framework/fields.py
@@ -660,6 +660,8 @@ class UUIDField(Field):
         super(UUIDField, self).__init__(**kwargs)
 
     def to_internal_value(self, data):
+        if data == '' and self.default:
+            data = self.get_default()
         if not isinstance(data, uuid.UUID):
             try:
                 if isinstance(data, six.integer_types):
diff --git a/tests/test_fields.py b/tests/test_fields.py
index 76e6d9d60..0b54be7c2 100644
--- a/tests/test_fields.py
+++ b/tests/test_fields.py
@@ -557,6 +557,14 @@ class TestUUIDField(FieldValues):
         self._test_format('urn', 'urn:uuid:00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000')
         self._test_format('hex', '0' * 32)
 
+    def test_default_uuid(self):
+        """
+        If `default=uuid` then '' is a valid input.
+        """
+        field = serializers.UUIDField(default=uuid.uuid4)
+        output = field.run_validation('')
+        assert isinstance(output, uuid.UUID)
+
 
 class TestIPAddressField(FieldValues):
     """