I am curious about the behavior of inline-block elements inside absolutely positioned elements. To better explain, I have provided an example below. We can see in the code snippet why the .icon within the .tag is not displayed like the previous .icon (which was inline and to the right of the text).
You can view the code at: http://jsbin.com/itole4/5
<html>
<head>
<style>
.field { position: relative; border: 2px solid black;}
.tag { position: absolute; left: 100%; top: -2px; background: black; color: white;}
.icon { width:16px;height:16px; display: inline-block; background: gray; text-indent: -999px;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a>Some text <span class='icon'>X</span> </a>
<h2>
<span class='field'>Some Text<span class='tag'> tag<span class='icon'>x</span></span></span>
</h2>
<h2>
<span class='field'>Some Text</span>
</h2>
</body>
</html>