Hobnail hemangioma is a rare, benign vascular neoplasm. Intraoral lesions are extremely rare. To date, only seven intraoral cases of hobnail hemangiomas and two intraoral cases of Dabska tumors have been described in the English-language literature. This article presents a hobnail hemangioma case with papillary intralymphatic angioendothelioma (Dabska tumor)-like features on the gingiva of a 7-year-old female. Hobnail hemangiomas are benign lesions, but they display worrisome features on microscopic examination and can be confused with malignant vascular neoplasms. Histologically hobnail hemangiomas demonstrate superficial dilated, vascular structures with prominent hobnail endothelial cells and deeper, collagen dissecting thinner neoplastic vessels which in some cases may raise a worrisome pseudoangiosarcomatous histologic view. It is important to set an accurate diagnosis of hobnail hemangioma to diminish the risk of diagnosing these lesions as malignant tumors thus avoiding unnecessarily aggressive therapy.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13000-026-01750-6.