MANY years ago there was image editing software that let you twist and swirl images

[Richard Dillon]

I forget the name, but I am looking for similar effect. Suggestions?

 

[G4DPII]

Photoshop does, you can do it in illustrator to some degree.

Very basic twist/swirl can also be done in Affinity Photo.

There are probably a few others, although I have not used them myself.

 

[firedept]

Liquidfy in Photoshop is what you are looking for.

 

[d235j]

That would have been Kai's Power Goo:

An ode to Kai’s Power Goo

This '90s gem was one of the most creative Mac applications of all time.

www.macworld.com

As @firedept says, Photoshop's Liquify is probably the way to go.

 

[Partron22]

IIRC, Kai's Power Goo died with the Mac's 16 to 32 bit transition. It's not OS X compatible but may still run on Windows 95.