Make Image links themable

I would request making the actual output of the image links and taxonomy terms themable. It is one possible solution to my problem. Let me describe my problem:

My taxonomy images are very small, just icons. I want them to display inline with the taxonomy term itself. However, I can't do that because of line 53 of taxonomy_image_link_alter.module:
$tname = $show_name ? ('<br />'. taxonomy_image_tt("taxonomy:term:$term->tid:name", $term->name)) : NULL;
Because of the hardcoded HTML line break, my images display above their terms, which looks bad in my design.

Right now, I have to hack this file each time I update the module:
$tname = $show_name ? (' '. taxonomy_image_tt("taxonomy:term:$term->tid:name", $term->name)) : NULL;

If adding a whole theme seems a bit heavy handed (I do see that there are 2 themes already being used for the image links), then perhaps a simple admin option to turn the line break off could be added?