diff --git a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
index 1195bfbe040..34c81d6a78c 100644
--- a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
@@ -110,6 +110,17 @@ module ApplicationHelper
     text.html_safe
   end
 
+  # circumvents nesting links, which will behave bad in browsers
+  def link_to_gfm(body, url, html_options = {})
+    gfm_body = gfm(body, html_options)
+
+    gfm_body.gsub!(%r{<a.*?>.*?</a>}m) do |match|
+      "</a>#{match}#{link_to("", url, html_options)[0..-5]}" # "</a>".length +1
+    end
+
+    link_to(gfm_body.html_safe, url, html_options)
+  end
+
   def markdown(text)
     @__renderer ||= Redcarpet::Markdown.new(Redcarpet::Render::GitlabHTML.new(self, filter_html: true), {
       no_intra_emphasis: true,
diff --git a/spec/helpers/gitlab_flavored_markdown_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/gitlab_flavored_markdown_spec.rb
index ec31cd1011e..f64362faae5 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/gitlab_flavored_markdown_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/gitlab_flavored_markdown_spec.rb
@@ -163,4 +163,17 @@ describe ApplicationHelper do
       gfm("fixed in #{@commit.id}", :class => "foo").should have_selector("a.foo")
     end
   end
+
+  describe "#link_to_gfm" do
+    let(:issue1) { Factory :issue, :assignee => @fake_user, :author => @fake_user, :project => @project }
+    let(:issue2) { Factory :issue, :assignee => @fake_user, :author => @fake_user, :project => @project }
+
+    it "should handle references nested in links with all the text" do
+      link_to_gfm("This should finally fix ##{issue1.id} and ##{issue2.id} for real", project_commit_path(@project, :id => @commit.id)).should == "#{link_to "This should finally fix ", project_commit_path(@project, :id => @commit.id)}#{link_to "##{issue1.id}", project_issue_path(@project, issue1), :title => "Issue: #{issue1.title}", :class => "gfm gfm-issue "}#{link_to " and ", project_commit_path(@project, :id => @commit.id)}#{link_to "##{issue2.id}", project_issue_path(@project, issue2), :title => "Issue: #{issue2.title}", :class => "gfm gfm-issue "}#{link_to " for real", project_commit_path(@project, :id => @commit.id)}"
+    end
+
+    it "should forward HTML options" do
+      link_to_gfm("This should finally fix ##{issue1.id} for real", project_commit_path(@project, :id => @commit.id), :class => "foo").should have_selector(".foo")
+    end
+  end
 end