29/07/2026
Did anyone else catch this at Wimbledon? Novak Djokovic had tiny gold studs in his ears during his match against Sinner. Half the internet thought it was medical tape. It wasn't.
It's being called ear seeding and originally came from Traditional Chinese Medicine Auricular Acupuncture practices. And it's a lot older than Centre Court.
Here's the idea, and it's genuinely one of my favourite things to explain. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the ear isn't just an ear. It's treated like a small map of the whole body. Different points connect to different systems, not randomly, but mapped out and refined over centuries of practice, long before anyone had a name for "wellness."
Tiny seeds are placed on those points. Gentle pressure does the rest. No needles, which is exactly why they're so easy to spot sitting there on someone's ear.
In clinic, I practice the use of ear seeding/auricular acupuncture. Fine needles or tiny seeds are applied to Acupuncture points in the ear. It may assist with calming the nervous system, balancing hormones, addiction and digestion. It is part of a whole system treatment approach.
What I keep coming back to is this. Djokovic didn't discover something new out there on the court. He just made a very old idea visible to a few million people at once.
That's TCM, really. Quiet, considered, working in the background long before anyone's watching. I see it every week in clinic, in people who came in curious and leave saying they wish they'd tried it years ago.
If any part of this has you curious, that's usually where it starts for most people too.
– Dr Mal
