We report the clinical course of a 63-year-old man with a Warthin's tumour in the right parotid gland that had ulcerated the overlying skin. The ulceration may have been due to the malignant transformation of either the epithelial or lymphoid component or, as in very rare cases, it may have resulted from inflammatory alterations crossing the capsule of the tumour into the adjacent parotid parenchyma and surrounding skin. Only two similar cases of the latter have been reported to date. The main clinical pitfall of such an inflammatory skin disruption of an otherwise benign Warthin's tumour is that it may be mistaken for an infiltratively growing malignant lesion.