The TabNavigator is in a custom TitleWindow pop-up using embedded styles and fonts, so I can't easily post all necessary files to replicate the problem.

At this point I'm 99% percent sure it's not a problem with the TabNavigator MXML, but with some interaction of some style with the tabs. Strangely, if I comment out the call to PopUpManager.centerPopUp(this), which is called on creationComplete the problem goes away. It also goes away if I remove all custom styles.

But here's the TabNavigator code:

PHP Code:
<mx:TabNavigator id='inventoryTabNavigator' width="100%" height="100%" styleName="inventoryTabNavigator">
                <
mx:VBox label='Installed'>
                    <
mx:DataGrid id="installedDataGrid" dataProvider="{testData}" styleName="dataGrid" width="100%" height="100%">
                    <
mx:columns>
                        <
mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Item" dataField="name"/>
                        <
mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Status" dataField="status"/>
                    </
mx:columns>
                    </
mx:DataGrid>
                </
mx:VBox>
                <
mx:VBox label='Inventory'>
                    <
mx:DataGrid id="cargoDataGrid" dataProvider="{testData}" styleName="dataGrid" width="100%" height="100%">
                    <
mx:columns>
                        <
mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Item" dataField="name"/>
                        <
mx:DataGridColumn headerText="Status" dataField="status"/>
                    </
mx:columns>
                    </
mx:DataGrid>
                </
mx:VBox>
                </
mx:TabNavigator